New Sci Fi Setting Seeds

[Astromancer]

{The Farfarers}


Jump Points around any star that has them (and no one knows why more than 85% of the stars have them) tend to come in set patterns that seem to be based on the simple solids. Tetrahedron patterns with jump points on each of the four points make of about fifty percent of the stellar populations jump points. Cubes, with eight jump points, make up another 30% of the stellar population. Octahedrons, with six jump points, are about 15% of the stellar population. Earth has one to the rare dodecahedron patterns, with twenty jump points. It is assumed that icosahedrons with 12 jump points are out there somewhere.

Why the jump points are arranged as they are confounds scientists and keeps mystics employed.

Tetrahedrons generally have gates that lead the furthest afield. Both of the known jump points to the Small Magellanic Cloud are from tetrahedron pattern jump gates. The normal rule of jump gates is, "The more Jump Gates the less distance traveled."

Some jump gates aren't open. Tests show they're there, but not available. Better technologies generally allow access to more jump gates. Some jump gates aren't stable in where they come out. Some are totally random, others seem to shift between different set points. Some are one way passages. Some are mysteries with no one coming back period.

[PTTG]

I like to make jump gates into the artifacts of an ancient but broadly earth-compatable civilization. That way, it handily explains why Earth is a part of the network and why only "interesting" systems (ones with earthlike planets) are present in the galaxy.

[AlexanderHowl]

Only 8% of stars are G-Type, so it would be wasteful to place jump gates around other stars if you just wanted to interconnect habitable planets. At best, only around an 1/8 of G-Type stars are likely to have habitable planets due to changes in L as they get older and due to inconvenient asteroid belts or gas giants. Of those, only 1/4 of them will have lifeforms that use left-handed amino acids and right-handed sugars like we do (anything else will likely create byproducts that will cause Earth life anaphylaxis). Even when you reduce that number to 0.25% though, that still leaves a billion stars connected by jump gates in the Milky Way, which is probably more than any Precursor civilization requires.

A more modest proposal would involve a local jump gate network built by Precursors. There are around 2 million stars within 500 ly of Sol and, even with the above criteria, probably 5,000 G-Type stars orbited by habitable planets with compatible life. A network of 5,000 stars would probably be more than enough for any setting.

[warellis]

Originally Posted by Astromancer

{The Farfarers}


Jump Points around any star that has them (and no one knows why more than 85% of the stars have them) tend to come in set patterns that seem to be based on the simple solids. Tetrahedron patterns with jump points on each of the four points make of about fifty percent of the stellar populations jump points. Cubes, with eight jump points, make up another 30% of the stellar population. Octahedrons, with six jump points, are about 15% of the stellar population. Earth has one to the rare dodecahedron patterns, with twenty jump points. It is assumed that icosahedrons with 12 jump points are out there somewhere.

Why the jump points are arranged as they are confounds scientists and keeps mystics employed.

Tetrahedrons generally have gates that lead the furthest afield. Both of the known jump points to the Small Magellanic Cloud are from tetrahedron pattern jump gates. The normal rule of jump gates is, "The more Jump Gates the less distance traveled."

Some jump gates aren't open. Tests show they're there, but not available. Better technologies generally allow access to more jump gates. Some jump gates aren't stable in where they come out. Some are totally random, others seem to shift between different set points. Some are one way passages. Some are mysteries with no one coming back period.

Hmm would this setting be sort of like Traveller's assumptions on interstellar societies? Not necessarily the Third Imperium I mean but like having both small free traders & large corporate traders and governments that are sort of distant due to no/very expensive FTL comms?

[Flyndaran]

Originally Posted by AlexanderHowl

Only 8% of stars are G-Type, so it would be wasteful to place jump gates around other stars if you just wanted to interconnect habitable planets. At best, only around an 1/8 of G-Type stars are likely to have habitable planets due to changes in L as they get older and due to inconvenient asteroid belts or gas giants. Of those, only 1/4 of them will have lifeforms that use left-handed amino acids and right-handed sugars like we do (anything else will likely create byproducts that will cause Earth life anaphylaxis). Even when you reduce that number to 0.25% though, that still leaves a billion stars connected by jump gates in the Milky Way, which is probably more than any Precursor civilization requires.
...

It's certainly possible to have habitable planets around stars other than G. There's also the issue of habitable to who.

There are some theories for why our chirality is the way it is and it may be not purely random making our set the most common.

Why wouldn't aliens want to study alien life just, because they know of many others? That's like asking why any human would want to study a newly discovered insect when we know of so many.
Sure, it wouldn't get the funding of the very first alien find, but there'd always be someone caring quite a bit.

[Astromancer]

Originally Posted by PTTG

I like to make jump gates into the artifacts of an ancient but broadly earth-compatable civilization. That way, it handily explains why Earth is a part of the network and why only "interesting" systems (ones with earthlike planets) are present in the galaxy.

Knock yourself out. Myself PTTG, I prefer confusion and mystery. However, your explanation is clearly the sanest and most logical possibility and by a long measure.

[Phantasm]

Originally Posted by Flyndaran

It's certainly possible to have habitable planets around stars other than G. There's also the issue of habitable to who.

Indeed. Orange K-types have fairly decent life zones, and though rarer the yellow-white F-types may harbor more than one habitable planet in their life zones.

It's the red M-types (such as Proxima Centauri and TRAPPIST-1) I'm wary of housing habitable planets, even if said planets are in the life zone. M0 to M3 stars I'd say "maybe" to, as they're on the hotter side of the scale, but the M5 to M8 types that litter the galaxy I wouldn't expect complex life as we know it to exist. (That doesn't preclude extremophiles or various theoretical life forms such as nitrogen- or silicon-based life.)

[Astromancer]

Originally Posted by Phantasm

Indeed. Orange K-types have fairly decent life zones, and though rarer the yellow-white F-types may harbor more than one habitable planet in their life zones.

It's the red M-types (such as Proxima Centauri and TRAPPIST-1) I'm wary of housing habitable planets, even if said planets are in the life zone. M0 to M3 stars I'd say "maybe" to, as they're on the hotter side of the scale, but the M5 to M8 types that litter the galaxy I wouldn't expect complex life as we know it to exist. (That doesn't preclude extremophiles or various theoretical life forms such as nitrogen- or silicon-based life.)

Of course not all stellar communities will want/need/bother with either naturally habitable or terraformed planets. Space habitats would be popular with many groups. So, just because a given star lacks either habitable planets or terraformable ones, doesn't mean that people won't find it suitable for settlement.

[AlexanderHowl]

It would depend on the cost of the jump gates (or other form of travel). Even in a post-scarcity society (as in, human beings do not need to work because their entertainment and subsistence is provided for without any labor on their part), there will still likely be economic reasons to build jump gates. If not, you have a society that is so poor that they cannot afford jump gates or so wealthy that they have no reason to build jump gates because they have everything they need (since wealthier human societies seem to possess stable populations or negative population growth, overpopulation is unlikely to be a pressing reason).

[warellis]

Originally Posted by AlexanderHowl

It would depend on the cost of the jump gates (or other form of travel). Even in a post-scarcity society (as in, human beings do not need to work because their entertainment and subsistence is provided for without any labor on their part), there will still likely be economic reasons to build jump gates. If not, you have a society that is so poor that they cannot afford jump gates or so wealthy that they have no reason to build jump gates because they have everything they need (since wealthier human societies seem to possess stable populations or negative population growth, overpopulation is unlikely to be a pressing reason).

Speaking of post-scarcity, would that cause possible psychological problems on humans? I ask this because research is finding we may actually need work:
https://www.google.com/amp/www.cbc.ca/amp/1.4039467