Xavier Onassiss

Re: Lessons from Byzantium

I'll say this much for the Ottomans: nobody in history has ever made a better foot-stool.

...

What?

Re: Lessons from Byzantium

Yes, but he effect becomes much more pronounced - it's been estimated that there are potentially 12-14 suns with earthlike planets within 30 LY of Earth -meaning that they are closer than that to each other. If you're talking a week or two for communications then that suggests a level of control possible that wouldn't be realistic in a relativistic setting. To put it in the same setting I had been thinking of: 16th-17th century Europe, travel at 1 LY / day puts multiple potentially habitable systems in the same "time range" as many cities in Spain were from the capital and a lot closer than the Spanish colonies in the Americas. You could (would?) still get the same effect, but the "controllable space" gets much, much, larger. The early spanish fleets took about 4 months to make a round trip to the Caribbean: at 1 LY / day that gives you a sphere of space 100+ lightyears from earth, on the same time scale: that's many thousands of star systems, including hundreds of G-class suns.

 

cheers, Mark

Aside from the number of star systems in a given volume, all of the important variables above can be tailored to the SF setting you want.

The game I'm working on has FTL, but it's nowhere near 1LY / day: 100c is the best it can do, approximately 2LY / week. And earth-like worlds are assumed to be extremely rare -- the only ones found so far require extensive terraforming. My point is, with a little tweaking, I think it would be possible to fit the Byzantine history model to an FTL setting -- just not necessarily with the 'defaults' of 1LY / day FTL, and earth-like worlds 10LY apart.

Don't look at me,

Xavier Onassiss

Re: What would you build challenge

Extra-dimensional travel: to dimension where everything works right, mega-scaled, immobile OAF, 1 charge w/no recovery, extra activation time.

Done.

I don't have Hero Designer (or my books) at hand, but I'm fairly sure I could do this on 25 real points.

Don't look at me,

Xavier Onassiss

Re: Solar Systems Like Ours in the Minority

Given a typical distribution of stars, what would the average distance between "Sol-type" systems be, with this result?

Don't look at me,

Xavier Onassiss

Re: Guns, guns, and more guns

Have you considered using Resource Points? A resource point pool with the limitation "only for firearms" might do the trick here.

Don't look at me,

Xavier Onassiss

Re: Instantaneous Communications plus Time Dilation Equals ???

<--- I always wanted to use that one!

If you don't want to consult a physics teacher, perhaps you'll find what you're after on crank.net's 'einstein was wrong' page. I'd skip the stuff labeled 'illucid' or merely 'cranky' and 'crankier.' Go straight for the 'crankiest' entries for the very best (or worst!) de-bunking of Einstein the internet has to offer.

You're welcome!

Don't look at me,

Xavier Onassiss

Re: Instantaneous Communications plus Time Dilation Equals ???

That doesn't sound like the Sagnac effect has anything to do with the "crazy-quilt" effect from the "train example" -- which specifically references different observations at different "frames of refernce".

The important connection is in the paragraph labelled Synchronization Procedures. From the linked article:

On a non-rotating planet that ensures fidelity: two time-disseminating relays, going full circle in opposite directions around the globe, will arrive at the originating station simultaneously. However, on a rotating planet, it must also be taken into account that the receiver moves during the transit time of the signal, shortening or lengthening the transit time compared to what it would be in the situation of a non-rotating planet.

 

It is recognized that the synchronization of clocks and ring interferometry are related in a fundamental way. Therefore the necessity to take the rotation of the Earth into account in synchronization procedures is also called the Sagnac effect.

When you look at it this way, it's easier to see the similarity to the differing reference frames in the 'train experiment.'

Don't look at me,

Xavier Onassiss

Re: What's in YOUR future history?

Catgirls.

 

...

 

...

 

What?

Yeah, well...when I started working on this thing, someone said to me "You can't do a SF setting w/no cat girls" so I put in some cat girls. I think it was you, Susano. Or maybe it was Brain-Child. I keep forgetting.

Don't look at me,

Xavier Onassiss

Re: Your "2010" Pet Gaming Projects

In the coming year I'll continue working on the Terracide sourcebook for Star Hero. I'm eagerly waiting to find out when 6e Star Hero comes out; I'd like Terracide to be 100% 6th edition-ready when it's finished. For the curious, some early draft material can be found at Susano's site, but it's all due to be replaced as soon as I get around to it. Playtesting Terracide is also on my to-do list, but I'm going to be in the middle of nowhere-ville USA, 40min from Evansville, IN and 90min from Carbondale, IL. So finding other Hero players will involve some driving....

Don't look at me,

Xavier Onassiss

Re: Quote of the Week From My Life.

So I'm getting ready to move back home, and someone says to me "Everyone's going to be glad you're back."

My reply: "Great, let's start a pool on when they all change their minds."

Don't look at me,

Xavier Onassiss

Re: How can you make the stone age cool?

The original Land of the Lost, only with PC's instead of lame actors. Coolest thing ever.

(I mean the old 70's Saturday morning show, not that Will Ferrel crap.)

Don't look at me,

Xavier Onassiss

...and SF RPG designers and game-masters, from AintItCoolNews.

Copernicus’ Law of Science Fiction: Bending the laws of physics out of service to the story is fine, doing it out of ignorance is unconscionable.

That one's a keeper!

Don't look at me,

Xavier Onassiss

Re: Instantaneous Communications plus Time Dilation Equals ???

How is Doppler shift a demonstration of relativity? It's a demonstration that the wave (or wave-like phenomenon) appears compressed or stretched by the motion of the source and/or the "observer"' date=' not a demontration of Special or General Relativity. Not all things that are relative are part of Relativity.[/quote']

 

"Appears"???

Re: Instantaneous Communications plus Time Dilation Equals ???

Which is coincidental' date=' not causal, and not related to the effect being claimed in the "passing train" example.[/quote']

 

That's right, it's a different experiment. (And I never said otherwise.) However, it stands as a demonstration of relativity, as observers in different reference frames will see the same phenomenon in different ways. And both sets of measurements will be equally valid.

 

 

Don't look at me,

Xavier Onassiss

Re: Instantaneous Communications plus Time Dilation Equals ???

Unless I'm mistaken' date=' the Doppler shift in light isn't an effect of relativity.[/quote']

 

At any speed high enough to cause a measurable doppler shift in light waves, special relativity is a factor. See this article for more details.

 

 

 

Don't look at me,

Xavier Onassiss

Re: Instantaneous Communications plus Time Dilation Equals ???

If you'd read the linked Wiki article' date=' you'd see that we're not talking about Doppler shift in light.[/quote']

 

True, the wiki article doesn't discuss the frequency shift of the light, but yes, that's also another effect of relativity. As I understand it, the stationary observer would see the light on board the train 'blue shift' as it's approaching, and 'red shift' as it's receding. The observer on board the train, however, wouldn't observe this effect.

 

In answer to the question, how can the light do both? --it doesn't, actually, at least not both in the same reference frame. In different reference frames, measurements of the same light will give different results. Which one is considered 'real'? According to Einstein, both are equally vaild. What does this mean?

 

Suppose instead of a moving train car and a platform, you had two parallel tracks, each with an observer in a train car. You run the experiment with car A moving, and car B stationary, then run it with car A stationary and car B moving in the opposite direction. Using only the measurements of the lights aboard the cars, can you tell which car was moving and which was stationary in each trial? Good luck.

 

Don't look at me,

Xavier Onassiss

Re: Is "ether" real?

You could in principle decide to call 'dark matter' ether' date=' but doing so has no useful function and is likely to confuse people. Having finally read the article, the first sentence tells me enough to know that JP has no idea what he's talking about: [i']The major evidence for the special theory of relativity is the Michaelson-Morely[/i] (sic) experiment, which demonstrated that there was no "ether wind" due to the movement of the earth through it. This is simply not true. Michelson-Morley was one of the experiments that led up to SR (and was resolved, initially, via the Lorenz Contraction), but it's hardly either the only evidence, or the major evidence.

JP has no idea what he's talking about? Well, that never stopped him before.

Don't look at me,

Xavier Onassiss

Re: Instantaneous Communications plus Time Dilation Equals ???

You can't have it both ways. Either the train is moving relative to the photons from the flash' date=' or it's not.[/quote']

 

Well, you see, there's this guy named Einstein who had a few thoughts on that very subject....

 

 

 

Don't look at me,

Xavier Onassiss

Re: What's in YOUR future history?

True, I was wondering though, if anyone had seriously looked at the religious upheaval, that not being the center of the universe, or "gods Image" and what not, could play in a campaign. Especially one saying, where the technology could effectively return the dead to life so to speak at certain levels, or cloning, or all that fun sci fi stuff, up to and including stuff like you see in the Hyperion Cantos by Dan Simmons?

 

~Rex

I tend to follow the rule of 'write what you know', and when it comes to religion, as a devout 8th Day Agnostic, I don't know much. I'm a current events junkie, so I get a lot of ideas for adventures involving religion from various news feeds. But those tend to be focused on political rather than theological issues.

Don't look at me,

Xavier Onassiss

Re: Instantaneous Communications plus Time Dilation Equals ???

The light itself cannot hit both ends of the train at the same time' date=' AND hit the ends at different times, though.[/quote']

 

I think the key words here are "same time" and "different times." When time dilation becomes a measurable effect, these phrases don't really mean anything. (which is why the situation I presented in my original post was giving me difficulty)

 

 

Don't look at me,

Xavier Onassiss

Re: What's in YOUR future history?

Oh yeah, there will be religion, due to the nature of the setting. It's hard to mistake a genocidal relativistic assault for 'the rapture' but of course, someone will insist that's exactly what it was. Others will use it as an excuse to launch a 'jihad' against their least-favorite aliens. (Who will most likely respond by finishing the job on humanity's few survivors.) And a few will simply feel that they must complete 'god's work' and finish wiping out humanity themselves. (Don't drink the kool-aid!)

If it seems I'm being unfair, no, I don't think religion always leads to irrational, counterproductive, violent behavior. But that's when it gets noticed, and also where the best 'plot hooks' for rpg's can be found. I've also got another adventure seed about Buddhist monks in search of the next incarnation of the Dalai Lama. That's right. Buddhist monks. And kung-fu. In spaaace!

Don't look at me,

Xavier Onassiss

Re: The cranky thread

I'm not even working retail this year, and I'm still getting yelled at for saying 'Happy Holidays' instead of 'Merry Christmas'.

 

Bah, humbug.

Yelling back works for me.

I like the fact that 'Happy Holidays' covers every denomination, plus New Years' Eve/Day. I tried 'Happy RamaHanuKwanzaMas' but somebody told me it discriminated against Pagans 'cuz I'd forgotten the Solstice. What am I gonna do?

Don't look at me,

Xavier Onassiss

Re: An interesting article on the Physics of Space Combat

The latest entry at Rocketpunk Manifesto offers up some good insights on orbital engagements. It's the eighth in a series on space combat, and they're all well worth the read, IMHO. And as always, the comments at Rocketpunk Manifesto are every bit as good as the main entry, so check them out too if you've got time.

Don't look at me,

Xavier Onassiss

Re: Instantaneous Communications plus Time Dilation Equals ???

Reminds me of a story called Beep by James Blish.

 

 

Apologies for not being able to hide the Spoiler below.

 

 

Instantaneous communicator with messages that can be received by every communicator that is ever made. The time differential causes all future messages to be received as a beep.

Spoiler tags are just like quote tags.

Example: (spoiler) 'your spoiler here' (/spoiler)

Replace the parentheses with brackets and you get this:

Don't look at me,

Xavier Onassiss

Re: A Thread for Random Videos

I hope this hasn't already been posted: my favorite Red Dwarf scene.

"Step up to red alert."

"Sir, are you absolutely sure? It does mean changing the bulb."

Don't look at me,

Xavier Onassiss