Kraven Kor

Re: Generic SF Universe Project Another thought... Handwavium or no, FTL should not automatically mean Time Travel. Little chat we are having as I type this is discussing using gravity manipulation - gravity bends space and time, so you create your own bend somehow that gets you to WHERE and WHEN you are trying to get. I'd say Time Travel is impossible for my campaign but obviously should be an option to others if they want it.

Re: Generic SF Universe Project True, though I like to gloss over the really technical in favor of practical explanations. I might help out on this, but I fear my ideas may clash with others. The concept I am trying to espouse in the campaign setting I have a small amount of work done on is kind of based on the Miles series by Lois McMaster Bujold - more of a space-age spy thriller than a war story or space opera or whatever. Lots of options for the party dynamic of RPG's - more small unit action, espionage, anti-piracy, search and rescue... exploration, first contacts, alien artifacts and such. Ideally, a generic setting should have enough "stuff" for any number of different campaign concepts. My input on a few things: 1. Aliens should be alien, not actors with a prosthetic forehead. 2. There should be aliens - hostile, friendly, known, unknownd... but there should be aliens. 3. FTL - yes, but should be limited in some fashion. Chase seens where you simply teleport to your target might be less interesting than telling Scotty you need to hit warp 9.9 and you need to do it 5 minutes ago. Similarly, having the invading fleet pop into space around your planet and open fire before you can say "Phase 12" might be anticlimactic. Either stationary worm holes of jump gates, or "spinning up the drives", or you have to be far from major gravity wells so you need traditional drives as well (my campaign solution)... something. 4. Utopian Terran Federation? Evil Corporate Empire? Earth politics in space? I'd imagine something like the UN administering space travel and claims, with extra-solar colonies having either autonomy or being established by different nations - first to Alpha Centauri plants their flag. That UN could be only over Earth's nations, or it could be an alliance - loose or otherwise - of various aliens. My imagining is you have a few Earth governments who have survived, each making their own claims in the solar system and beyond. Then a UN-like council or some such where the nations negotiate their rights and conflicts in space. 5. On Aliens, I think there should be some older than us, some not. More later.

Re: Space Warfare II - Stealth Reconsidered Could you build a system that recycled as much heat / emissions / waste as possible to bring the waste heat - and thus detectable emissions - "near zero?" Say, you have some type of fusion reactors, which powered a variety of drive systems - ion and/or plasma drives or the like for in-system travel, the jump or whatever FTL drives (if they exist in the setting / our imaginary future reality for this conversation), and all the other stuff. Obviously, if your engines are actually providing thrust you can't mask that - but could your other systems be so efficient that you'd be significantly harder to detect? Or to where you might be mistaken for something other than what you are? Say a cruiser coasting along or parked in an orbit, observing or whatever it is your ship(s) is there to do?

Re: Eve-Online tabletop edition? Then Autocannons, Blasters, and Pulse Lasers would be Autofire, naturally. Damage types would be a bit tricky... I'll think on that. Missiles would best be simulated by a RKA with "Extra Time" - Rockets no extra time, missiles Delayed Phase, up to Torps which would probably be 2 full phases or so.

Re: Eve-Online tabletop edition? The tracking vs. angular is easy: Use Velocity Based DCV, and then put adders on the guns that are priced to represent "Combat Skill Levesl (Only to offset DCV from Velocity)" Small or fast tracking guns would have +3 to +5 (a LOT more if you are basing velocity on 2 meter hexes, where an interceptor would be moving 3,000 hexes or so per phase... I'd do your hexes as 1km to 10km for EVE combat...), big or slow guns would have no such adder. Then use Range PSL's for the range of the guns... Small Railguns: +3 vs. Velocity, +2 Range PSL Small Blasters, Autocannons, Pulse Lasers: +5 vs. Velocity, no Range bonus Small Beam Weapons: +4 vs. Velocity, +1 Range Medium Railguns: +2 vs. Velocity, +3 Range Medium Blasters, AC, PL: +4 vs. Velocity, +1 Range Medium Beams: +3 vs. Velocity, +3 Range Large Rails: +1 vs. Velocity, +5 Range Large Blasters, AC, PL: +3 vs. Velocity, +2 Range Large Beams: no Velocity bonus, +4 Range ... Something like that.

Re: Space Warfare II - Stealth Reconsidered I'll look it up in my Einstein: 100 Years of Relativity book tonight, if I get a chance. But I know that both relativity and string theory and later quantum mechanics all faced a wall of "but that's impossible" arguments relating to Scientific Laws. Again, I'm not trying to say "FTL is in fact possible without time travel" - I'm trying to say "It is possible that there is something we don't yet know" that could both be supported by current observations and known 'laws' while also opening up new possibilities by redefining what we know about the universe. Which, last I checked, was surprisingly little. There will be another Einstein, some day, who will turn the world of science on its head once again.

Re: Population Growth for a colony Well, some guesswork might do the trick... But first, some things to consider. What supplies are with them on the ship? What is the environment of the planet they landed on? What about extraterrestrial microbes, bacteria, viruses? What range of human knowledge was on the vessel - was it meant to start a colony, or simply add to another? Under ideal circumstances a woman can (this sounds horrible but bear with me) pump out a child each year, but most women would beat you to death if you suggested they be essentially permanently pregnant. A safe bet would say 3 children per woman per generation, and given ideal circumstances few of those would die per generation. So, number of women survivors at start, multiply by 3, then multiply by how many generations have passed (this is assuming approx. 50% of children born per generation are female.) If there was high death tolls, from any cause, or harsh conditions, lower that to 1 or 2 surviving children per woman. If they were doing any kind of accelerated breeding programs - be it child quotas or test tube babies or whatever - then increase it a bit.

Re: Space Warfare II - Stealth Reconsidered I tried a quick google search (believe it or not I am working and thus have limited time to discuss this) but I know for a fact that there have been several instances of Scientific Laws that were held up as universal truths for some some time were then proven wrong or inadequate. Any scientist who suggested any theory that went against such a law or "known truth" were mocked, ridiculed, called fakes and phonies and liars; or, worse, blasphemers. But then the new theory was proven true, the old law was retired or rewritten, and then generations later when someone challenged the new status quot, the new Law, the new known truth... they were treated the same way only to be vindicated when their new theory proved to hold water. However, there have been many more claims that violated the Laws of Physics which were ultimately disproved. The weight of evidence is in favor of the current Laws; but that does not mean that what we know now is 100% accurate and inclusive. If we aren't brave enough to challenge conventional wisdom, we will never discover anything new again.

Re: THE ULTIMATE BASE -- What Do *You* Want To See? If not too late, and not already mentioned, I'd love some info on creating appropriate holding cells for bases where you might have to detain or imprison pro/an-tagonists, short term or long term. Pointers on how to ensure the cells are in keeping with the rest of the campaign, suggested builds for normal / supers / sci-fi / fantasy bases, etc.

Re: Space Warfare II - Stealth Reconsidered

Re: Warp Drive article on the Discovery website Except, in the case of Relativity, it does. The Math seems to support that or be built around that or some such - at least to my understanding. Though I still disagree and think we are, as you say, missing that something else that is going on.

Re: What would happen - and at what cost? I think Zero-G manufacturing will be able to produce some products and materials at greatly reduced cost than surface manufacturing. I think there are some things we'll be able to build in Zero-G that are simply not possible on the surface. Not to mention the freedom of less environmental worries. Asteroid mining will likely be profitable - and, depending on the exact cost of getting materials off the ground of another planet or moon, then perhaps there as well. Asteroid mining is much cheaper due to the lack of breaking out of a planet's gravity, etc. So yes, given cheap and quick ways to move about a solar system, I think there is a lot of money to be made and great industrial progress via such things.

Re: Warp Drive article on the Discovery website That makes zero sense to me. I say, he arrives at the Sun and 8 minutes later we see him arrive, but he has already been there 8 minutes, both for us, and for him - in both frames of reference. He would see himself leave Earth 8 minutes after he left - an odd effect to be sure - but again all he did was beat the evidence of leaving, not the event of him leaving. He jumps back to Earth, and for 8 minutes an observer on Earth would still see him at the Sun, until the photons caught up to him.

Re: Warp Drive article on the Discovery website

Re: Warp Drive article on the Discovery website I know that is how the math works, but I still say that beating the visible evidence of an occurrence does not mean you beat the occurrence. You jump to Andromeda and arrive now - Andromeda Galaxy will be millions of years past where we "see" it from Earth - everything we know of it is from light that has taken millions of years to get here. Millions of years later, an observer on earth will "see" your craft arrive there. If you then jump back, you will arrive back at Earth moments after you left, and an observer in Andromeda would not "see" you arrive back at Earth for Millions of years - but that is just due to how long the visible evidence of your arrival took to travel from A to B. Again, I may be wrong - but from my limited understanding of the whole light speed deal I just don't think FTL must mean time travel. I think actually moving through space faster than a photon is likely simply impossible, but I think something like a Warp Drive or Jump Drive could be possible.

Re: Help with Orbit Laplace Resonance Calculations of Conjunctions If you have more determination (and a few more firing neurons) than me, you might be able to get something worked up using Universe Sandbox. The program is capable of a lot, but you have to really know what you are doing and have a lot of time, from what I can tell, to actually create a working system in it - moons, planets, whatever. Then you can rotate the view and adjust time scale to get your charts / pics put together.

Re: Poison Star Hero Drawing Very awesome. God man, I used to be able to draw fairly well (never got shading or color down but was good at line art) and I just got so discouraged seeing work like this that I gave up. Now I can't even bring myself to doodle.

Re: Eve-Online tabletop edition? You might do better to simulate the "slots" without directly wedging them into the game system. What I would do for HERO is give ships 3 Variable Power Pools - one for Weapons and "High Slot" modules, one for Shields, Afterburners ("Mid Slot") and one for Armor and passive speed and cargo mods. Just limit each VPP to specify what type of devices can go there. Then simulate the layout of each ship via the size of the VPP, and limit the weapon / tech preferences using adders to the VPP that make the preferred equipment cheaper or the non-preferred more expensive. I'll take a look at the Rifter posted, and then maybe try to post my own take on this. I played EVE pretty hardcore for about 4 years so have fond memories of it as well - I'm borrowing very little from it for my Star Hero campaign, though.

Re: Space Warfare II - Stealth Reconsidered Sigh my arse. You enjoy correcting us fools and you know it Besides, until recently I've been absent from these boards for years, and apparently missed a whole lot of stuff

Re: Space Warfare II - Stealth Reconsidered

Re: Space Warfare II - Stealth Reconsidered Couple thoughts I had on this for my campaign: Large bodies can be used to hide behind if your prey doesn't have observation points behind as well - come into their system behind a large Gas Giant, keeping it between you and their world. Will at least change when you get detected from "years before you arrive" to "days to weeks before you arrive," depending on what methods of travel are available. Some type of special material or shielding which limits how much particle or radio emissions your craft emits would help against some types of observation, but not all - your craft simply partially blocking background radiation can be enough to give away it's presence to a sensitive enough system (or an observant enough person.)

Re: Warp Drive article on the Discovery website Yeah, but the whole mathematical concept of "frame of reference" is the reason we believe this. I think if you imagine the entire universe as a single frame of reference, then you can start to wrap your head around this as us laymen do: Travelling faster than light just means you beat the visible evidence of an event, not the event itself. I had a conversation on this when I was plotting my current campaign; they kept asking "but in who's frame of reference?" to everything I tried to come up with. I just can't wrap my head around the idea that if you move faster than a photon - the visible evidence of a visible event - then you are in fact traveling through time. I won't claim to be right, but my imagination says there are more ways to approach this than what conventional wisdom might suggest, and I thus contend that there is a "universal frame of reference" whereby you can travel "faster than light" without traveling through time as well.

Re: What effects would you see on a terrestial planet in a binary system? Depends on the Binary, as stated... Alpha Centauri A and B are practically part of Trinary system, Proxima Centauri aka Alpha Centauri C being the third. A and B orbit each other, and C is essentially being pulled along by the other two. A and B range from 11 to 35 or so AU apart; a planet in orbit of one would see the other as an incredibly bright star - about as bright as Mars or Venus get at their closest passes to Earth. A planet in such a Binary system would be little different than one in a non-binary system, aside from a few billion years difference in life-span depending on exactly how much influence each star has on the other, etc. Basically, it is harder to attain and especially maintain a stable orbit in a binary system since you have 2 stellar masses in the equation. Binary systems where the stars are closer together would, as noted, make for a very hostile environment, and one probably not conducive to worlds humans could inhabit. Flares, unstable orbits, orbits with massive elliptical variation... lots of roadblocks. I got some great info with just a few Google searches that is helping me flesh out my Star Hero campaign, I can dig up my links sometime if need be but just google "habitable planets in a binary system" and enjoy.

Re: Variable Bonus

Re: STR Adding to HKA's The ones I said I used in my campaigns: +5 CV max from any single category (Skill Level, Circumstance, Manuever, etc.)