Bucky

Re: Average Seperation

Re: Average Seperation At present there appears to be no reason any star to not have planets. Planets appear to be a natural byproduct of the star forming process. Now, whether those planets are habitable, that is another question altogether. Most rocky planets are probably barren. The larger the star, the faster it burns through its fuel, and life does not have time to form. And alot of planets in the green zone may not have adequet water.

Re: Average Seperation Yes. The first species that developes starflight will spread and populate the nearby regions. The nearby stars in their local area, and end up (whether it is planned or not) conquering more and more star systems. This will tend to reduce the number of technically advanced, and even intelligent species. The strong will survive and end up removing any potential threats to the dominant species. Slavery is not a viable option for long, as most slaves don't like it, and tend to rebel eventually. Any weakness or lack of vigalence by the Master Race will be its downfall. You also have to look at Fermi plagues. This will also reduce the number of species as well. The direction of technology has been and probably always will be, to do more and more with less and less. While at one time it may have taken a very high proportion of a planet's GDP to produce, say, an atom bomb, after a few decades, GDP goes up, and cost of replicating the technology, and research becomes less. You need fewer resources, and fewer PEOPLE to do the same time. Until you get to the point where too many people have so much capabilities, that one jerk can wipe out the entire planet. All it takes is one jerk to screw up anything.

Re: So, what would be the impact of... Something that intrigues me, is the idea that any such Supers might *want* to rule the world or even a large, or powerful country. The whole world domination thingie never seemed like a good idea anyway, imagine the paperwork. Do the Supes want to be recognized as supers? Once they are, they get trapped into a very weird life, filled with lawyers, groupies, and various hanger ons and other insulations from reality. Any displays of powers is going to garner fear, envy, and hatred, even if it is for a good cause. Governments are gonna want to chat.

Re: help with wind spell ideas Another alternative, is reveal secret writing, by blowing on it. Thereby bypassing specific components needed to reveal such invisible inks.

Re: Enterprise vs. Enterprise

Re: Veteran of a 1000 Psychic Wars A love of the music of Blue Oyster Cult I think would be manditory.

Re: Something Star Hero needs, but hasn't. There are really two issues here. I want to agree with DrTemp. That such a design system is necessary to avoid a breakdown in believablity, a rupture in that suspension of disbelief. And I want to put some thought into how that design system might work. But the other posters are right in pointing out that Hero is based on the Characters, not the set or settings. Starships are sets, props, transportation systems. They provide Heros with abilities and possibly challenges, even something to fight. We may have a particular fondness for a particular prop, but that does not change the fact that it is, after all, a prop. Soemthing the Hero uses to accomplish a task. Is a design system necessary? Well, that depends on how low your threshold of disbelief is. DrTemp provided a really good example of a broken ship, with chemical rockets that burned longer than they had fuel for. The simulationist in me would balk at that, and that would spoil my enjoyment of the game. But then, not everyone is like me, nor cares about such details. YMMV (Okay, okay sentient ships are a whole other ball of soup.)

Re: Something Star Hero needs, but hasn't. Hmmm. First off, How do you fold space? Using EM as an analog [and recognizing the difference between EM and gravitation, specifically while EM is a vector force, gravitation is a tensor.] You could use something like constructive interference to create banded regions of, well, "compressed" and "expanded" space-time around the ship. Using Alcubierre's technique as well as later modifications, one could produce a warp drive that way. Wabbida again? The point is you need a working model of the physics first. From that, you can design the equipment and arrange it as needed. You can look at power requirements (Does the theory allow for something analogous to catalytic or resonance reactions? You don't need that much energy to produce the effect, you just needed it directed to the correct zone, or using the correct material) and energy densities as well as efficiencies. This is really what determines the space, size and weight of your starship engine. Most of the tech for a starship is already available. Life support, hull materials, navigation, computers, a lot of this stuff is already here. What we don't have is the engine, the actual propulsive device. Once you have that, you know how much power/fuel it takes. As "tech level" increases, equipment efficiency increases. Size, and weight decrease as does power and/or fuel requirements to produce the same effective speed. (This is true of almost all the components, not just the propulsion system.) Prices for new, state of the tech level, stuff may be more expensive, but lower tech items become less so. Or as Bucky Fuller once said, the entire direction of technology is to do more and more with less and less. There may be also some key technologies or theoretical models that are applicable across a number of starship systems. For example, imagine being able to manipulate gravitation in an analogous way to EM. Not only will (might) gravitational technology allow you to create a warp drive. But also such things as pumps that are more efficient with greater capacities, higher flow rates. etc. Or note how in Star Trek, having transporters automatically gives you replicators. So, for building a design system, you have to start off with a theoretical basis for the drive system. Once you know that theory, a lot of the other pieces are already built in the real world, or extrapolational (?) from real world technologies. The size, mass and weight, as well as power/fuel requirements fall out. I spend waaaaaay too much time thinking about such stuff.

Re: Firefly HERO Website Up Very Shiny! Can't add much to the praise. Nice layout, great graphics. The only, minor nit, is that there are 10 characters in Firefly, not 9. Serenity herself has been referred to as the 10th character. (But with the debate about whether Firefly is one solar system or many, that can be difficult to write up at this time.) Yes, Firefly, the movie coming out in April. Principle photography has already been completed. Hopefully some network suit will see it and think "Hmm.. that would make a great weekly television show."

Re: [Release Schedule] Dark Champions Battlegrounds?

Re: [Release Schedule] Dark Champions Battlegrounds?

Re: The Incredibles -- WITH SPOILERS The ending was perfect as well. There they are, at a track meet, watching Dash finally play sports. Cheering him on, until he starts doing too good. "Second place is good." And the look from the folks seated next to them. Priceless. The argument about which turnoff to take was great as well. Sometimes its okay to argue and bicker at each other and rather than represent the failings of a relationship, it demostrates how strong it is. You knew Mom and Dad are gonna be just fine when they argue like that. As for the government setting up the Supe Relocation Program, that actually makes a lot of sense. First off, any government that did start offing supes, especially good supes, would find itself in a world of hurt. And by using the program, if the need ever does arrise where such special abilities are needed, well, said government does have their number. Besides, its the least they can do after saving the planet so many times. Best movie ever.

Re: Quote of the Week from my gaming group... After one of our party rolled a critical fumble, DM: "It has to be bad, but it has to be entertaining as well." Another line, earlier in the same campaign. My character, Bucky, (University professor in process of becoming Steven Strange-ish) "We don't actually NEED a large naked green girl. But it would help."

Re: Sex as a skill "Let's face it, most men will be a good looking girl's slave for a fair while in exchange for a grin and a wiggle ..." I would like to argue this point with you. But unfortunately, you are right. And considering the, well, strength of the mating urge, especially in male humans, it is not at all difficult to make them think its the best sex ever. Men are pretty easy to please. So even this aspect, if you are doing this as some kind of mind control or illusion, ain't much of a power. Against men. Women I hear tell are a different critter altogether. A LOT harder to fool, or trick.