5088 replies to this topic

[Lloyd: the White Wolf]

I meant on an FTL drive. My guess is that you can only go to adjacent systems, but considering how mind-bogglingly vast space is, it'd be easy to plot a course to avoid any and all gravity wells aside from the one you want to hit.

[Xomeron]

Adjacent systems only. The idea of gravity wells going around stars is what Sweetspace Tunnels are.

Unlike the stars around our sun, the Starscape Cluster is relatively close to the center of its galaxy(Sol is in the outer rim of the Milky Way) and the stars are much more closely packed; there could be several star systems within half a light year.

[Necro]

Must resist urge to rip off Mass Effect for this...

[Xomeron]

Mass Effect is one of the best things you can rip off for this. Please do so. Leave out the biotics.

[Necro]

The reach is mine then. Hopefully someone else will provide the flexibility.

Also, either I missed it or it wasn't there, how big a navy do we start with?

[Lloyd: the White Wolf]

Wait, I thought this was in the Orion-Cygnus Arm?

Can I get any figures on how close this is to its galactic center? There are a few thousand stars in the central parsec around Saggitarius A*, so I can buy the density (doesn't mean I'll like it), but most of them are red giants or massive stars which put out absurd amounts of radiation. (Yes, I do some research. I'm a moderately hard scifi fan.)

@ Necro: You can start out with four colonizers or two Inner Colony worlds. You'll build your military navy from scratch.

[Xomeron]

This is not necessarily the Milky Way, or even a standard Spiral Galaxy.

[Necro]

Wait, from scratch?

Aww...

Can I trade one of those colonizers for a warship?

[Xomeron]

Nope.avi

[Necro]

Aww...

Alright, well, it looks good to me.

[Xomeron]

Well, soon as we have the new maps, I'll submit it.

[Wrack and Ruin]

Oh yeah, do you allow fully-biological races with organic ships and stuff?

[Xomeron]

Yeah, that's fine. Gotta take care of your ships, though. It won't do to have your battleship get a cold while you fight

[Paragon of Demacia]

Armyofspacewhales.jpg?

[Necro]

I still don't get the practicality of organic ships - there are just so many issues, it doesn't make sense to me. Not my call though, so we'll wait and see.

[Wrack and Ruin]

I was actually leaning more towards ships made from organic material, AKA corpses.

And bile.

Look forward to it!

Edited by Am I Poplar Yet?, Oct 21 2011 - 10:32 AM.

[Necro]

That still doesn't eliminate the practically issue for me, but hey, whatever floats your spaceship.

[Ra's al Ghul]

That still doesn't eliminate the practically issue for me, but hey, whatever floats your spaceship.

>RPGs make sense all the time anyways

[Necro]

That still doesn't eliminate the practically issue for me, but hey, whatever floats your spaceship.

>RPGs make sense all the time anyways

When did I say it didn't make sense?

I'm not saying it can't or shouldn't be done, just that I wouldn't since I find it impractical. Given I was heading a movement that was tired of uber-realism in RPGs before the site went down, I don't think I'd be complaining about it making sense.

[Judge Alex Humva]

Sorry about the delay in maps guys, but with Xom's newer requirements I'll be done sometime this evening, if all holds out. Still fifty systems per sector, though now without burnspace or sweetspace routes, so the maps will seem slightly lonely, but hey, so where the IL maps so wth.

[Lloyd: the White Wolf]

Did you get my PM?

Re: Biological ships. It'd take a large source of biomass to actually build said ships and some way to mimic a technological FTL drive with organs. There's also the question of remass--what exactly are you throwing out of the back of your ship to move it? Most tech-based races will be using fusion torches or something like that, I expect.

And if you say you've developed a reactionless drive, I'll get Xomeron to ban you on grounds of horribly mauling the laws of physics.

[Lord Kaitan de Storms]

Hooray for hard sci-fi!

EDIT: Ah, right, this isn't a blog...

Well, I really do like the idea of an enforced hard sci-fi RP. It would be refreshing.

I say that a lot, don't I?

Edited by Lord Kaitan de Storms, Oct 21 2011 - 02:37 PM.

[Alastor MacBatman]

Hrm. Tempted just to make my Mech RP an Evangelion game.

Think I should?

[Lloyd: the White Wolf]

No, I don't remember you saying that much, actually.

How exactly does this FTL system work?

@ Alastor: That might be a bit too mature for BZP. You could always make an ersatz version, though.

Edited by Lloyd: the White Wolf, Oct 21 2011 - 02:41 PM.

[Niflheim]

Well, they've discovered material that's faster than light, so obviously, it's possible to go faster than light. I would link the article, but the material/matter is called Neutrinos. About 2x faster than light, from what I've read.
Also, I have Battletech-esque Mechs in my RPG. Of course, I would post this draft, but I'd rather make my next one just a final draft. I'm working on a big technology section, trying to make it realistic as I can.

[Vak Il Mio Amore]

Well, they've discovered material that's faster than light, so obviously, it's possible to go faster than light. I would link the article, but the material/matter is called Neutrinos. About 2x faster than light, from what I've read.
Also, I have Battletech-esque Mechs in my RPG. Of course, I would post this draft, but I'd rather make my next one just a final draft. I'm working on a big technology section, trying to make it realistic as I can.

Yes, but those things are basically useless to developing FTL systems. I've read the article too It just proves that humanity can engineer something capable of FTL travel, but neutrinos themselves are next to useless for that purpose.

[Lloyd: the White Wolf]

Being a science fiction fan, I've read several articles on the subject. Several people have suggested that the apparent FTL effects are due to a quirk in the satellites which were used to relay the data from one station to the other. Of course, there only data anyone has on the subject is just the apparent fact that apparently the neutrinos went FTL, which alone is useless for actually making any theories to circumvent Special Relativity.

Until such a time as this whole thing boils down to "False Alarm" or "We can now go FTL," I will opt to assume it's a false alarm.

[Niflheim]

Being a science fiction fan, I've read several articles on the subject. Several people have suggested that the apparent FTL effects are due to a quirk in the satellites which were used to relay the data from one station to the other. Of course, there only data anyone has on the subject is just the apparent fact that apparently the neutrinos went FTL, which alone is useless for actually making any theories to circumvent Special Relativity.

Until such a time as this whole thing boils down to "False Alarm" or "We can now go FTL," I will opt to assume it's a false alarm.

So, what would you consider plausible for FTL? And on that subject, what is everyone's favorite Space Propulsion system(FTL or not, fictional or not)? I'm asking this for what my FTL system should be in my RPG, since I'm on the edge of what to choose at this point.
I favor Solar Sails, personally. They're pretty much proven to work, but you have to sleep thousands of years before it works. Debateably practical.

[Lloyd: the White Wolf]

There are a few different forms of FTL in fiction. The only one that might be plausible IRL is wormhole travel, assuming you can stabilize the mouth of said wormhole and not need a gravitational singularity to make it.

Basically there's what I call the "pinch" drive, which works like the system from A Wrinkle In Time, if you've read that book. It's also called a fold drive, because it effectively folds space so that two points are closer together than they would be normally. Ex: folding a piece of paper for an ant to travel across it much quicker. A wormhole drive would fit into this category.
Next is the "alternate dimension" drive, which bumps the ship from our dimension into a dimension with different rules (in this case, FTL travel) so it can travel faster. The Warp from WH40K, hyperspace from Stargate, Slipspace from Halo, and hyperspace from Babylon 5 are examples of this for of drive.
Another kind is the "bubble" drive, which doesn't pinch space as much as it warps space around the ship to make the ship travel faster. Warp drive from Star Trek and the theoretical Alcubierre drive from real life fit into this format. (Please note that the Alcubierre drive has since been disproved).
The final kind is the "jump" drive, which basically teleports the user to another point in space instantly, without having to travel through the intervening space. The jump drive from A Mote in God's Eye or the Kearny-Fuchida Drive from BattleTech are examples of this.

I do like solar sails, but I find them impractical for anything but recreational flying. They take too long and are reliant on an outside source of propulsion. That being said, they're very cheap. I personally like fusion torches. I can't remember what they use as remass, but they're very powerful and relatively simple, once you've mastered fusion. My species has developed it to the point that you can mount fusion torch engines on your fighters.

That being said, they're also exceptionally hot (as is anything involving a release of energy large enough to move a ship any decent distance in space), so one of my species' peripheral technologies is powerful heat sinks that can last for a very long time without needing to radiate waste heat.

[Necro]

And this is why I keep trying to figure out just how hard sci-fi we're going to be doing - because I've grown to hate incredibly hard sci-fi, and I don't want to have a large scientific debate every two pages.

Do we really need to go this in-depth, guys? Just pretend that they use Higgs Bosons to give the ships negative mass, or something else that sounds smart enough when you say it that it'll fit in with the universe and most people won't bother trying to figure out if it works or not.

No I'm not saying we should just hand-wave anything questionable as "It's science fiction, relax." But we don't need to debate this as much as we are, the inner workings of the FTL transportation isn't going to come up much if at all.

Also, Alistar, please don't turn it into an Evangelion RPG - I like my brain intact and not in need of bleach.

Edited by Necro, Oct 21 2011 - 04:07 PM.

[Lloyd: the White Wolf]

I'm aware that it's not likely to come up in game. That being said, if I understand which one of those four methods the drive is using, (my guess is the bubble drive) and why it will deviate toward a gravity well no matter how far outside said well's range it is, I'll be able to come up with some tech that will help my race.

If you're playing a science fiction game where you are invented technology, I believe that using real physics gives you an edge up, because then you can explain to people exactly why their hard-light tech won't work but your superlaser will.

Of course, I'm not absolutely stringent on that. If I was, I would not even allow an FTL drive. As it is, I expect it to take quite a while to cross a solar system (I refer you again to A Mote in God's Eye, where it takes weeks to get from the jump point to the target planet, but crossing interstellar space is instantaneous.)

[Necro]

I'm aware that it's not likely to come up in game. That being said, if I understand which one of those four methods the drive is using, (my guess is the bubble drive) and why it will deviate toward a gravity well no matter how far outside said well's range it is, I'll be able to come up with some tech that will help my race.

Then wait for or PM Xom, since he's really the only one who genuinely knows - the rest of us are speculating, and speculating about ingame details that aren't necessary isn't the purpose of the planning topic.

If you're playing a science fiction game where you are invented technology, I believe that using real physics gives you an edge up, because then you can explain to people exactly why their hard-light tech won't work but your superlaser will.

If we're in soft enough sci-fi that the hard-light technology is acceptable in the first place, then I don't see why the physics of it should come into question. The time for that is when it's submitted for approval, not when it's being used. If it passed the approval inspection, it should stand up to scrutiny.

Edited by Necro, Oct 21 2011 - 04:19 PM.

[Lloyd: the White Wolf]

I doubt that it'll get approved, but I know of at least one person concocting a race who uses hard light for their tech. I was just using that as an example--in general, I find that if you understand the principle behind your tech, you can exploit side effects or weaknesses it might have.

[Necro]

Of course - you're much better equipped if you understand the theory behind something in addition to its real-world application. But in the analogy given, we have hard light technology that's been approved, and a superlaser that's been approved. When they're approved, that's a big stamp that says "This is physically possible in this universe" from the closest thing the game has to a God, the GM. They're on an equal playing field in terms of making sense, the trick is who knows more about how the other's system is supposed to work/bend physics so it works.

[Lloyd: the White Wolf]

Point taken. As long as you understand what I meant. *shrug*

[Judge Alex Humva]

Personally, I'm not going be playing around with hard sci-fi-ness. The way I see it, a one megaton warhead will ruin your day regardless of whether or not your super laser is scientifically justifiable, and mine has the benefit of existing in the thousands in real life, stockpiled in various European countries, American states, and the Siberian tundra.

Why waste all those resources and power when something just as good already exists in real life?

But I'm getting off topic; on topic, I sent the revised maps to Xom, and they should be approved this time around. Anyone wishing to see them and start calling dibs on their specie's color is welcome too PM me.

Edited by Alex Humva, Oct 21 2011 - 07:19 PM.

[Xomeron]

Of course - you're much better equipped if you understand the theory behind something in addition to its real-world application. But in the analogy given, we have hard light technology that's been approved, and a superlaser that's been approved. When they're approved, that's a big stamp that says "This is physically possible in this universe" from the closest thing the game has to a God, the GM. They're on an equal playing field in terms of making sense, the trick is who knows more about how the other's system is supposed to work/bend physics so it works.

Wait

When did I approve hard light?

Edited the new maps in. Last words before I send it in, anyone?

Edited by Your Friend Doctor Robert, Oct 21 2011 - 07:42 PM.

[Lloyd: the White Wolf]

You didn't. This is just theoretical, if you did possibly approve hard light.

Please don't approve hard light.

[Xomeron]

Hard light will never be approved. I was worried someone had slipped it in their profile and I'd missed it.

[Lloyd: the White Wolf]

Thank you.

So I guess this goes to the limbo of the Judges now?