10-09-2009, 05:40 PM | #1 |
Join Date: May 2005
Location: Oz
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[Spaceships 5] Eggshells and Eastereggs
GURPS Spaceships 5—Exploration and Colony Spacecraft is out at your local e23. And there is much wooting!
Some folk are beginning to discuss the Easter eggs contained among the example ships, and itsy little production problems such as cross-references to "p.00" (now fixed: download a fresh PDF!)). But they are doing so in the "SJ Games Discussion" and "e23" forums, whereas discussion of game content more properly belongs here. So here you go, wootsters! What is absolutely brilliant about GURPS Spaceships 5? is there anything that needs a light sand and another coat of varnish? |
10-09-2009, 06:13 PM | #2 |
Join Date: May 2008
Location: CA
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Re: [Spaceships 5] Eggshells and Eastereggs
I think the intersteller signal detection rules need work. I'm not sure the assumption that radio waves can be easily detected at intersteller distances with really bad sensors is true. The rules basically say a TL8 sensor array appropriately sized for an SM+0 ship (so actually massing 10 pounds) would be able to trivially easily detect radio waves coming from Alpha Centauri. Actually, they say the same sensor could detect radio waves coming from anything up to two parsecs away, again, with no modifier.
That just doesn't make much sense, especially since SETI itself says that we couldn't detect our own radio waves out past 0.3 light years distance. SETI's estimates for the Arecibo radio telescope suggest it can only detect very narrow-band signals with transmitter strength on the order of giga to terrawatts at any useful intersteller distance. Mass media signals simply would not be detected at all at intersteller distances unless they were using ridiculously overpowered transmitters transmitting on very odd bandwidths. You'd only be able to resolve UHF TV pictures up to 2.5 AU away with an Arecebo-like reciever, and the carrier wave only up to 0.3 light years. SETI says that only that high intensity narrowband emitions will be detectable beyond 1LY, and on Earth that's primarily narrowband radar. However, I have doubts even narrowband radar would be detectable at interstellar distances simply because even then you need gigawatts of power just to transmit to 5LY away. Source: http://setifaq.org/faq.html#1.2.3 |
10-09-2009, 08:21 PM | #3 |
Join Date: Aug 2004
Location: Dobbstown Sane Asylum
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Re: [Spaceships 5] Eggshells and Eastereggs
Just a clarification -- ships go down to SM +4 at the smallest. We don't have official stats for what kind of array a "SM +0" ship would have. Sure, you can extrapolate, but as you get smaller and smaller, there's no guarantee that you'll be accurate.
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10-09-2009, 08:51 PM | #4 |
Join Date: Aug 2004
Location: Chillicothe, OH
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Eastereggs
Fictional ships
The Odyssey-class ship looks like the Discovery from 2001: A Space Odyssey. The Palomar-class is the Enterprise-D from Star Trek: the Next Generation. The Charon-class looks like the Botany Bay from the original Star Trek. The Alcatraz-class might be from Blake's 7. Proposals and concepts The Nova-class, Phobos-class, and Lowell-class are obviously from one of the NASA Mars mission studies from the early 60s. The Enceladus-class is an adaptation of the Advanced Interplanetary Ship design by Freeman Dyson and the Project Orion team. |
10-09-2009, 09:09 PM | #5 | |
Join Date: May 2008
Location: CA
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Re: [Spaceships 5] Eggshells and Eastereggs
Quote:
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10-10-2009, 12:44 AM | #6 |
Join Date: Aug 2004
Location: Buffalo, New York
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Re: [Spaceships 5] Eggshells and Eastereggs
Ok - so why do I NEED to buy installment #5 of the series?
Mind you, I'm not saying I don't want to buy it and you can't make me buy it <g>, but pretend that I am a dubious buyer who is almost ready to walk about out of the store without buying it. Why is it a must have?
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10-10-2009, 12:52 AM | #7 |
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Join Date: Oct 2004
Location: Forest Grove, Beaverton, Oregon
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Re: [Spaceships 5] Eggshells and Eastereggs
Does it have a ginormous mega-sized generational ship?
That alone might make me buy it. |
10-10-2009, 01:12 AM | #8 |
Join Date: Jul 2008
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Re: [Spaceships 5] Eggshells and Eastereggs
Two of them, in fact.
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10-10-2009, 01:41 AM | #9 | |
Join Date: May 2005
Location: Oz
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Re: [Spaceships 5] Eggshells and Eastereggs
Quote:
Here's what it has in it:
Upshot. If you are running an exploration campaign, whether it be Star Trek or The Voyage of the Space Beagle, you need this PDF. If your players are limping home in a damaged ship from the Zeta Octant, you need this PDF. If not, maybe you don't. But I've got it, and you didn't have to pay for it, which suits us both fine, neh? |
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10-10-2009, 02:38 AM | #10 |
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Join Date: Oct 2004
Location: Forest Grove, Beaverton, Oregon
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Re: [Spaceships 5] Eggshells and Eastereggs
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