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Old 07-14-2019, 09:45 AM   #1141
malloyd
 
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Default Re: New Sci Fi Setting Seeds

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Originally Posted by Prince Charon View Post
Of course, once PROJECT MELANGE leaks, they're going to put a lot into their Spice program.
One thing that often gets overlooked in settings that allow this sort of stuff is that if the Mcguffin works, the laws of nature are different here by definition. It's actually fairly implausible it's the *only* way to exploit that difference. Pretty much anybody could have a program for generating psi in some way totally unrelated to Spice, or for that matter of generating the same effects that can be produced by psi through some totally mechanical process.

The Russian countermeasure doesn't have to be Spice, they may be having great success with their program to bombard lemmings with radiation, turning them into them into psi generators that cause anyone seeing one to fall into a hypnotic trance in which they will obey any orders whatsoever....
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Old 07-14-2019, 12:39 PM   #1142
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There seems to be a problem with all of these drives. They're powered by the Hawking radiation of a small black hole as it evaporates. The example in Wikipedia is one that evaporates in about 3.5 years, having got you to 10% of light speed. How do you stop? You can't take the mass to build another black hole along with you without wrecking your acceleration.
There's a couple of options. Option one is fly only courses that are 3.5 years long from the traveler's perspective.

Option two is to feed the black hole as you go along at the same rate it's losing mass.

Option three is a black-hole-relay-race. When the ship with cargo is running low on hole, a new hole is launched from earth on a much smaller, automated craft that can go faster, replenishing the payload's hole.
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Old 07-14-2019, 12:51 PM   #1143
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Option one is fly only courses that are 3.5 years long from the traveler's perspective.
You need a stellar neighbourhood very different from ours for that. You aren't going fast enough for time dilation to help significantly, so you only make a distance of about a light-month in that time. Your peak speed is about c/20, if you speed up, then slow down, which makes your average speed about c/40, on a flight lasting 42 months.
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Option two is to feed the black hole as you go along at the same rate it's losing mass.
That really cuts into your acceleration, since to double your drive duration, you're doubling the vehicle mass. This drive doesn't let you escape the pain of the rocket equation.
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Option three is a black-hole-relay-race. When the ship with cargo is running low on hole, a new hole is launched from earth on a much smaller, automated craft that can go faster, replenishing the payload's hole.
To get higher acceleration, don't you need to start with a lower-mass black hole? That will burn out faster: you can't turn Hawking radiation off.
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Old 07-15-2019, 04:36 AM   #1144
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Default Re: New Sci Fi Setting Seeds

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Originally Posted by malloyd View Post
One thing that often gets overlooked in settings that allow this sort of stuff is that if the Mcguffin works, the laws of nature are different here by definition. It's actually fairly implausible it's the *only* way to exploit that difference. Pretty much anybody could have a program for generating psi in some way totally unrelated to Spice, or for that matter of generating the same effects that can be produced by psi through some totally mechanical process.

The Russian countermeasure doesn't have to be Spice, they may be having great success with their program to bombard lemmings with radiation, turning them into them into psi generators that cause anyone seeing one to fall into a hypnotic trance in which they will obey any orders whatsoever....
I'm going with Spice because there's no chance that it doesn't leak eventually, and because this is something that they know works.
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Old 07-15-2019, 05:50 AM   #1145
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Default Re: New Sci Fi Setting Seeds

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You need a stellar neighbourhood very different from ours for that. You aren't going fast enough for time dilation to help significantly, so you only make a distance of about a light-month in that time. Your peak speed is about c/20, if you speed up, then slow down, which makes your average speed about c/40, on a flight lasting 42 months.

That really cuts into your acceleration, since to double your drive duration, you're doubling the vehicle mass. This drive doesn't let you escape the pain of the rocket equation.

To get higher acceleration, don't you need to start with a lower-mass black hole? That will burn out faster: you can't turn Hawking radiation off.
Remember that the kugelblitz black holes are made from light. Check the YouTube links above. The trick would be learning to make new black holes as you go along.
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Old 07-15-2019, 11:29 AM   #1146
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Try this idea...

In a setting much like THS mass production of antimatter and its containment has been figured out. This means that Pion Drives capable of going at 0.5 of C are now possible.

Picture the struggles to divide the far frontier. Many groups would be bitterly opposed to people leaving the solar system at all. Others would feel only their group is worthy. Others would just leave when they could.

According to Wikipedia's List of potentially habitable exoplanets, five worlds that are all less than 15lyrs away are in the "conservative habitable zone." Worlds that Humanity could reach for. As soon as Pion Drives are ready, people would simply go.

It could be a new version of No Peace beyond the line.
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Old 07-15-2019, 01:41 PM   #1147
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Default Re: New Sci Fi Setting Seeds

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Try this idea...

(SNIP)

It could be a new version of No Peace beyond the line.
I could definitely see a scenario in which a carefully-planned, well-funded private colonization effort sends a settlement fleet to a chosen star, only to discover the Gypsy Angel Collective has had bases there for a decade.

At that point, both sides must make hard choices.

The new arrivals received national funding, have a lot of colonists of all sorts in stasis, are very well-equipped and have at least 6-8 advanced vessels in the fleet.

The Gypsy Angel's have tolerably good facilities, know the system, and have enough infrastructure in place to have survived reasonably well for a decade with no support from Sol. However, they have a small population of generalists with masterful skills in "making do."

Unfortunately, the two communities have incompatible meme-plexes, which ensures philosophical conflict. The new arrivals are Libertarian individualists who came to create their own society based in laissez-faire economic principles and personal autonomy.

They've managed to work together this long on the promise that some day they'll get their own homesteads, and because so many of them remained in stasis for most of the trip. They have no interest, whatsoever, in collectivist principles or communitarian ideas.

The nations from which they originated helped get the fleet together, because it gave them a way to rid themselves of some troublemakers, reasoning that if their society follows the same arc as most Libertarian-type micronations, they'll either come to tragedy far from the lenses of the media, or the real-world difficulties inherent in running a functional society will force them to moderate their views.
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Old 07-15-2019, 07:41 PM   #1148
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I could definitely see a scenario in which a carefully-planned, well-funded private colonization effort sends a settlement fleet to a chosen star, only to discover the Gypsy Angel Collective has had bases there for a decade.

At that point, both sides must make hard choices.

The new arrivals received national funding, have a lot of colonists of all sorts in stasis, are very well-equipped and have at least 6-8 advanced vessels in the fleet.

The Gypsy Angel's have tolerably good facilities, know the system, and have enough infrastructure in place to have survived reasonably well for a decade with no support from Sol. However, they have a small population of generalists with masterful skills in "making do."

Unfortunately, the two communities have incompatible meme-plexes, which ensures philosophical conflict. The new arrivals are Libertarian individualists who came to create their own society based in laissez-faire economic principles and personal autonomy.

They've managed to work together this long on the promise that some day they'll get their own homesteads, and because so many of them remained in stasis for most of the trip. They have no interest, whatsoever, in collectivist principles or communitarian ideas.

The nations from which they originated helped get the fleet together, because it gave them a way to rid themselves of some troublemakers, reasoning that if their society follows the same arc as most Libertarian-type micronations, they'll either come to tragedy far from the lenses of the media, or the real-world difficulties inherent in running a functional society will force them to moderate their views.
Good one. Memeplexes versus the environment is always good drama.
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Old 07-16-2019, 12:11 PM   #1149
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Default Re: New Sci Fi Setting Seeds

The planet Sirona AKA Teegarden b and it orbits Teegarden's Star and it is about twelve and a half light years from Earth.

The planet is highly terraformable and several groups have started the process. meanwhile others are demanding that terraforming not be allowed. Planetary settlements are already growing. Low Intensity Conflicts are breaking out widely.

This is a cross between Transhuman Space and Sid Meier's Alpha Centauri. Memetically pure factions are fighting to control the world and build their visions.

However, where there was one faction to a theme in Sid Meires Alpha Centauri, there would be multiple factions on most the themes. Example: The Lord's Believers in SMAC had the Religious niche mainly to themselves and only the Cult of Planet challenged that. Here there would be multiple Christian Factions alone. As well as Hindu, Islamic, Shiks, and Bahá'í factions.
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Last edited by Astromancer; 07-16-2019 at 12:22 PM.
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Old 07-16-2019, 01:05 PM   #1150
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Default Re: New Sci Fi Setting Seeds

The subgroups sound small enough that the PCs could reasonably lead one of these groups -- collectively, or each.

Remaining ideologically "pure" enough to continue to direct or lead your faction while also being able to collaborate with the other PCs could be an interesting challenge.

I imagine that in order to enable that sort of fragmented chaos, one needs to have a somewhat unusual initial situation -- I suspect that the initial voyage was cheap and easy for all these separate groups to hop onto, but thereafter it was impossible, even for those that have powerful allies back on Earth. That sort of thing could be justified with a planetary/interstellar alignment that doesn't happen very often. When the window was open, everyone went. Now that the window is closed, it costs a thousandfold more per kg, and takes ten times longer -- maybe too long even for stasis.

War between secular factions interest me more than the religious ones; a libertarian team of security contractors attempting to assassinate an influential member of a nearby communist enclave, but doing so to frame the communist's envirosocialist militant allies.
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