Kristopher

Re: Star HERO with... not magic, really, but...

They could also be good guys offering essentially "the Ship who sang" concept to those who would qualify all sorts of good things like remote mobile forms (say, 'Androids' with total feedfack possibilities), ships, or even life/body changing surgery for indentured servitude.

 

Perhaps offering their (monopolized?) services to those who would otherwise be a physical/care burden burden but would have much potential.

Interesting option for one of the "nicer" factions, if they go to more remote worlds where medical science hasn't caught up to the state-of-the-art.

Re: 10 Sci-Fi Weapons That Actually Exist

I'm not sure on how well osmium would work as a penetrator. Yes, it's dense as hell, but I don't think it has the self-sharpening or pyrophoric properties of DU.

Re: 10 Sci-Fi Weapons That Actually Exist

No, seriously, how does something that's powered by the pressure of expanding gas behind it, work if there's a hole through it?

Re: 10 Sci-Fi Weapons That Actually Exist

How does a bullet with a hole down the middle even work?

Re: Multiple bodies for a single consciousness

http://www.herogames.com/forums/showthread.php/75956-AI-with-remote-puppet-body

http://www.herogames.com/forums/showthread.php/77062-Telepresence-Bioroid

Two threads with related topics.

Re: Charging points for tech gear?

A big bug bear for many Fantasy Hero games is whether you should charge points for magic items.

 

Now, in a high tech sci-fi setting with powered armor and laser swords, I assume this counts as Heroic Gear and is free. Is this correct?

 

If so, what if any balance issues does this create? Further, how does one balance alien races that possess abilities that are duplicatable with free tech?

First thought / brainstorming -- charge the difference between, say, having the ability in the focus, and having it inherent?

Re: 10 Sci-Fi Weapons That Actually Exist

Jet and rocket engines aren't propelled by gas pressure from behind the way a bullet or cannon projectile is.

Re: 10 Sci-Fi Weapons That Actually Exist

I don't fail Physics forever, though I may fail transcribing a process spoke of in a book on a game forum, for the period of a bit of sleep. The process used for the rounds in the book, is that of applying an intake to the bullet round, and a bit of creative engineering modeled around a converging/diverging nozzel at the opposite end of the round.

 

With initial supersonic Airflow, the Airflow Increases as it passes through the Converging section, through the throat, and into the diverging section, exiting faster (and providing thrust) then what it did when it entered.http://www.engapplets.vt.edu/fluids/CDnozzle/cdinfo.html if you want the basic math applet to play with.

 

The science gobbledegook in the novel comes courtesy of Travis S.Taylor, who's been pretty spot on for other such "could be done" science in other books http://www.doctravis.com/home (for credentials), and he doesn't seem to be in danger of Failing Physics Forever so I tend to give him the benefit of the doubt. I will do my best though to see if I can get him to give me the math and science behind it. I've had pretty good luck getting such things from brainy folk before.

There's no free lunch. Forcing the air into the smaller section of the "tube" through the bullet takes energy, and it takes it from the bullet's kinetic energy.

And really, I have to question the utility of having a hole down the center of a projectile that's propelled by gas pressure from behind...

Re: Chocolate in Pre-Columbian New Mexico

Materials from tropical plants and animals have been found in cites in the NE United States, IIRC, implying at least some trade reaching that far.

Re: 10 Sci-Fi Weapons That Actually Exist

I'm not a physicist' date=' so maybe I'm missing something, but it seems to me that without the combustive element, compressing air within the ramjet body will cause more loss of speed due to air friction than could possibly be obtained by the air jetting from the back. This looks like a perpetual motion claim to me.[/quote']

 

Bingo.

 

Additionally, what's going on in a ramjet or scramjet is not primarily the Venturi effect, AFAIK.

Re: Astronomers Say Alien Dust Is Nothing To Sneeze At

No you need to link me to that.

It's on the NGD part of the forums.

Re: 10 Sci-Fi Weapons That Actually Exist

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tip_jet

There's an extranal power source pressurizing both the hose and the "tip jets". There's no special process going on there, it's just old-as-dirt Newtonian action/reaction.

Re: Engineered Sun Explosion

And the possibility of deuterium fusion in the interior of Jupiter has been looked at. If there is/was a mechanism that would enrich deuterium by a factor of 100' date=' from about 1 part in 10^5 to 1 part in 10^3 or so of the hydrogen in a particular part of the planetary interior, then there would have been a while in the Jovian interior when sustained small-scale deuterium fusion happened. But now it's too cold, and the core of Jupiter has gone degenerate.[/quote']

 

As in "neutron star"?

Re: 10 Sci-Fi Weapons That Actually Exist

"Automated nano construction" of the type so beloved in SF is probably a pipe-dream if you don't ignore the practicalities.

Scramjets still need fuel.

The Venturi effect doesn't provide something for nothing.

Re: Math

Hero probably has the most effort intensive character creation system of any RPG because it requires that you actually think about what you are doing, but even then the maths is pretty basic, and covered in the tables provided. The actual system is not and never has been mathematically complex.

 

Anyone ever see the (original) 'Villains and Vigillantes' system method for calculating 'carrying capacity'? Sheesh.

 

I think this 'You need to be a Fud to play Hero' is a vicious rumour spead by the jealous.

Actually, compared to some systems, such as some of the examples given between your post and this reply, even character creation isn't that complicated or effort-intensive in HERO.

Re: 10 Sci-Fi Weapons That Actually Exist

I'd be interested in reading a more detailed explanation, if you can link to one.

Re: 10 Sci-Fi Weapons That Actually Exist

Basically, turns the bullet into a ramjet engine. Doesn't need fuel because of the super sonic airflow physics behind it as the bullet is leaving the muzzle at well over twice the speed of sound to begin with. So it starts to accelerate, and remains stable do to spin etc ......

 

Now, combine THAT, with a bullet like the .408 CheyTac, which is deadly accurate already out to a range of 2500 yards. Depending on round and initial velocity, "slipperiness" of the bullet etc, you can get some Insane Ranges, and impact energy out of it potentially, while retaining even more accuracy (unlike a gyrojet round), then the bullet would already have (CheyTac's .408 is in a class by itself accuracy wise. 3 bullets within a smidge over 16 Inches at over 2300 yards, and not much more then 1 minute of angle for vertical dispersion for shots up to and over 3000 Yards. Even TV hosts were hitting man sized targets at over 2500 yards, with Kill Shot, and 3 out of 6, without spotter.

 

Remember, it wasn't very long ago, that folks thought making an Airplane that was smaller then a hummingbird on Radar was impossible or a gliding bomb that could steer itself for that matter, or Nuclear level exothermic reactions, without nuclear material. And that's all OLD tech. Just remember the sheer difference the Miniball round made in those pesky black powder days. There's still plenty of exponential leaps to be made in slug throwers.

Turns the bullet into a ramjet, but with no fuel, which accelerates after leaving the barrel?

Cite?

Re: Engineered Sun Explosion

I must admit: my reaction is that the entire development in the linked manuscripts is "Not even wrong".

And so it doesn't surprise me that it traces back to atranshumanist.

Re: 10 Sci-Fi Weapons That Actually Exist

Oh it's an insanely huge list. The Bullet design for the .50 BMG round for example in the novel "Von Neumans War" , is actually quite doable. Just picture a 50 cal now, with 20 times the effective range.

 

Gets interesting real quick.

20 times the range? How would that be accomplished? There's some pretty simple and definite physics involved in the limits on effective range.

Re: 10 Sci-Fi Weapons That Actually Exist

If I had to guess about the future of slug-throwers' date=' it'd be that the next big leap forward would be guided projectiles. Dunno whether that would involve tiny flight surfaces on the rounds, or whether you'd have tiny little rocket motors, too, to help steer the projectile towards its target. I also think proximity defense systems like the ones being developed for vehicles are probably going to be further developed to counter heavy projectiles like tank gun rounds. But I doubt it'd ever be cost effective to do that for individual infantry facing small arms fire.[/quote']

 

While there's a guided round for the .50BMG in development, it's laser-guided, and for single-shot special-use precision fire. It's going to be a long, long time before the guided bullet or the homing bullet for general use becomes a reality.

 

While point defense systems against anti-tank missiles could happen in the foreseeable future, and perhaps even a system for use against HEAT cannon rounds, a PDS that's quick and accurate enough to stop kinetic-kill rounds is, again, a long, long way off.

Re: 10 Sci-Fi Weapons That Actually Exist

If "milliwaves" are microwaves, then I can see the company that's developing the ADS trying to create a distinction so that their weapon isn't "microwaving people".

Re: Engineered Sun Explosion

I'm not sure how seriously I take it. It sounds scarey, but it also sounds like it's trying too hard to be scarey.

Re: Bloodmäter

Sorry if this has already been answered, but do you record the sessions to make these summaries?

Re: The Singularity?

Come to that' date=' I find the Singularity as the "rise of Cthulhu" both plausible and frightening. Too bad that it's already been the plot of [i']Fire on the Deep.[/i]

Or half the plot. No, I don't find your aliens that interesting, Dr. Vinge. (Although Deepness in the Sky showed that it wasn't impossible to make it work.)

Earth emerges from the Slowness, and Cthulhu instantiates as the Internet, seizing control of human brains with a single glance at a website?

It's about as plausible.

Re: The Singularity?

The Singularity seems to be an article of faith for transhumanists' date=' and I think the handwaving away any mention of practical impediments is telling.[/quote']

 

"Article of Faith" sums it up nicely, given the reflexive dismissal of impediments you mention. "But something we haven't imagined yet will be invented!"

 

And those who don't believe in the singularity are dismissed as "luddites" and "technophobes", or compared with "cave men" convinced that the future will be the same as the past.

 

That said' date=' I do think humanity at some point will assume complete control of its own evolution, and when we do there will be one humdinger of an ethical debate taking place.[/quote']

 

Certainly.