Terradyne

[Peter Knutsen]

Originally Posted by combatmedic

ignore it, because it really won't matter 90% of the time and for most gamers

The problem is that the technological constraints are often the direct cause of the world being as it is. For instance, in one of Gibson's Sprawl short stories, the hacker character eventally decide to get hold a device that enables them to cheat the telephone company and get free calls, because as part of the prep work for their caper, they need to make a lot of long-distance calls, and the phone bill is getting big.

Or in Julian May's "Intervention", set in the early 21st century, one of the POV characters have to go to the post office to pick up a physical disc, which he than carries home and inserts into his computer, so that he can read his new emails. There's no Internet cabled to private homes, nor airborne Internet.

[combatmedic]

Originally Posted by whswhs

The last of which is precisely what "updated" means.

Bill Stoddard

Sure, but I didn't ask what 'updated' meant. I asked the OP what he meant by 'dated.' He didn't specify the computer technology being 'out of date.' He might have meant some aspect of the future history. He might have meant certain scientific data related to the Solar System, perhaps. Perhaps he just meant that Terradyne doesn't follow the latest trends and fads in SF, and that this might hurt its appeal for some folks.

[whswhs]

Originally Posted by combatmedic

Sure, but I didn't ask what 'updated' meant. I asked the OP what he meant by 'dated.' He didn't specify the computer technology being 'out of date.' He might have meant some aspect of the future history. He might have meant certain scientific data related to the Solar System, perhaps. Perhaps he just meant that Terradyne doesn't follow the latest trends and fads in SF, and that this might hurt its appeal for some folks.

Well, that's fair enough. I kind of assumed the computer technology as the focus, but then I have players who regularly joke about the 1-TB hard drive that's as big as a sofa and costs $10k.

Bill Stoddard

[combatmedic]

Originally Posted by Peter Knutsen

The problem is that the technological constraints are often the direct cause of the world being as it is. For instance, in one of Gibson's Sprawl short stories, the hacker character eventally decide to get hold a device that enables them to cheat the telephone company and get free calls, because as part of the prep work for their caper, they need to make a lot of long-distance calls, and the phone bill is getting big.

Or in Julian May's "Intervention", set in the early 21st century, one of the POV characters have to go to the post office to pick up a physical disc, which he than carries home and inserts into his computer, so that he can read his new emails. There's no Internet cabled to private homes, nor airborne Internet.

Yes, that's all true. Those are great examples.

But that stuff could be modeled in a game with little or no use of real world technical specs. In GURPS the TL and 'Complexity' of computers and programs matters more than real world details about processing speed, or what have you.

Of course, providing convincing and 'correct' technical specifications and fine details can add verisimilitude for the reader of fiction or the player in a game.

Originally Posted by Peter Knutsen

I might. I like that kind of gritty TL9'ish thing.

Yeah, I like it too.

[combatmedic]

Originally Posted by whswhs

Well, that's fair enough. I kind of assumed the computer technology as the focus, but then I have players who regularly joke about the 1-TB hard drive that's as big as a sofa and costs $10k.

Bill Stoddard

Heh, yeah, big drives!


:)

He may indeed have meant the computer stuff. I just didn't feel safe assuming that, given the other possibilities.

[David Johnston2]

Originally Posted by Flaco76

Would anyone be interested in an updated Terradyne setting? Or is it too dated to be updated?

Well what needs updating? The idea that the moon will have a population of six million in 2094 is absurd of course, but it was absurd then as well. The point of the setting is to have an inhabited solar system no matter how absurd that is. There's a paragraph of internet stuff that seems a little dated. Russia's name, but that's cosmetic.

[schmeelke]

Originally Posted by Peter Knutsen

I might. I like that kind of gritty TL9'ish thing.

Agreed. I like the idea of colonizing the solar system, starting with the Moon and Mars.

Originally Posted by whswhs

...the 1-TB hard drive that's as big as a sofa and costs $10k.

Ha! I don't remember that; I'll have to re-read the setting. The part I remember is a comet impact giving Mars enough atmospheric pressure to survive without a pressure suit. I have no idea how realistic that is. Or how long such an atmosphere would last.

[thrash]

Originally Posted by schmeelke

The part I remember is a comet impact giving Mars enough atmospheric pressure to survive without a pressure suit. I have no idea how realistic that is.

There was a point where the uncertainty in the orbit of comet C/2013 A1 (Siding Spring) gave it a non-zero chance of impacting Mars in October 2014. I did some back-of-the-envelope math and concluded that such an impact (~56km/s, if I recall correctly) would deposit enough energy and volatiles to raise the temperature and pressure of the atmosphere to a new equilibrium right at the Armstrong limit.

[David Johnston2]

Originally Posted by schmeelke

Agreed. I like the idea of colonizing the solar system, starting with the Moon and Mars.



Ha! I don't remember that; I'll have to re-read the setting. The part I remember is a comet impact giving Mars enough atmospheric pressure to survive without a pressure suit. I have no idea how realistic that is. Or how long such an atmosphere would last.

Not a comet as such. Saturn's outermost moon, Phoebe. I do not believe the idea to be practical but if Mars gained atmospheric pressure by such means, the atmosphere would be retained for a very long time by human standards.

[cybermancer2k1]

While I'd like to see Terradyne return, even as just an e23 reprint, I think the real question is how hard would Transhuman Space step on its toes? A lot of the background conventions are the same.