My (WIP) scifi setting

Wanderer · 07-31-2011, 12:23 PM

This is just laying groundworks for a scifi setting. Ideas, limitations, 'accepted' superscience etc. There are some things however which might benefit from opinions of other people. Also there are couple of things which kinda were left unanswered...

Background
Humanity has spread to stars... Unfortunately no FTL comms were (or are) available so the interstellar society quickly became fractured and independent minded while expansion to more unclaimed space continued. No sapient aliens were found (well so far at least, but galaxy is a huge place) however non sapient life was. Meanwhile biotech (and cybertech) innovations run wild at the core worlds and due flawed methods caused severe mental instability which often manifested due stress in critical situations. These transhumans were usually superior to ordinary humans but in general deeply disturbed as well. They did manage to take over few of the core worlds before they could be dealt with (civil war). After the crisis had ended the reasons for the instability became known and extensive gengineering became a strict taboo (and crime) - though as the transhumans were understood to be a liability - or potential risk elements - they were not put to death or imprisoned as the just confined/exiled to 'reserved systems' and would not be allowed to leave their planets (as technically it was not their fault that they became insane).

And result of ruining the core systems and breaking the foundations of already fractured interstellar society made most - if not all - colonies to break away and form their own governments, core worlds in their post war state had no means to respond - cold war of sorts continued until sort of Interstellar UN (name pending) was setup to oversee the space - it was not there to prevent wars but to make sure there would be no 'undue suffering' or disruption of trade due to disagreements between interstellar states/factions (in effect making things like interstellar law, interstellar currency, to certain extent peacekeeping stuff etc. possible - essentially allowing limited conflicts but keeping the scale from getting out of hand, no planet killers or WMDs allowed - somewhat like the Imperium of Traveller but without strappings of imperial power). Now the new and the old interstellar states are ready to explore, expand and struggle for survival in the galaxy.

Tech
Base assumption lies rather close to safetech TL10 - i think...

Biotech - due background - limited but existing, though strictly monitored, all genetic engineering would be mapped and only certified mods would be allowed, even then only in limited numbers or the person could be seen as non-human, imprisoned and forced to settle to 'reservation planet' (yeah, yeah, its deus ex machina to keep BioTech from ruining safetech universe, better ideas for it?).

Same goes with cybertech, to certain extent - though minor powers would have few reservations to modify their own agents with cybertech - especially if it is concealable.

Weapons... Plasma weapons, what good would scifi setting be without solid plasma blasters?

Space travel stuff...
Stardrive - Warp drive - essentially derived from the one represented in 2300AD, ie. very limited range (a pair of parsecs) - larger drive either allows carrying larger mass or going faster; requires discharging within 0.1G gravity well, say 4 h per ly traveled; ceases to function within 0.0001G gravity well; going over the drive limit or trying to jettison 'non-discharged' drive causes catastrophic radiation surge and explosion; warping ship can be tracked - even if signal moves at only at c - but warping ship itself is blinded.

Standard drives - normal (H2 & H2O) and HT (only H2) fusion torch drives and then 'High Efficiency Plasma Recombustion' or HEPlaR drive from GTS... Costs the same as fusion torch drives, gives 0.1/0.2 Gs with 675/1350 mps (TL9/TL10). Effectively giving slow burning but efficient drive for big ships and fast and inefficient drive for fighters.

Odds and ends
Laser weapons, UT and SS. UT states IR laser (ie. the 'basic laser') gets (2) same as UV laser - only difference being UV laser getting thrice the range and half the damage. This does not appear to hold true with SS. Any insights?

Gravity, the artificial kind... Would make so many things so much easier - not to mention allowing 'near normal' space travel. Since we would like to steer clear of 'contra-grav' does it seem plausible to have artificial internal gravity within the ships and/or gravitic compensators but no contragrav? Alternative would be pod like setup as seen in 2300AD ships (something akin to this). Or a final straw of going to transhumanist route of Bio-Tech and simply make them spacers survive without gravity. Opinions?

Radiation... The bane of space opera settings - the best we came up with was stating that artificial gravity/gravitic compensators somehow helped repulsing it. Easiest way would be just to ignore like usually done is space operas but without than the 'artificial gravity blocks radiation' or forcefields (ie. magnetic fields repelling only charged particles - ie. would not work against weapons only against radiation) it seems the only way. Other than resorting to Bio-Tech once again. Ideas?

07-31-2011, 12:23 PM	#1
Wanderer Join Date: Oct 2004	My (WIP) scifi setting This is just laying groundworks for a scifi setting. Ideas, limitations, 'accepted' superscience etc. There are some things however which might benefit from opinions of other people. Also there are couple of things which kinda were left unanswered... Background Humanity has spread to stars... Unfortunately no FTL comms were (or are) available so the interstellar society quickly became fractured and independent minded while expansion to more unclaimed space continued. No sapient aliens were found (well so far at least, but galaxy is a huge place) however non sapient life was. Meanwhile biotech (and cybertech) innovations run wild at the core worlds and due flawed methods caused severe mental instability which often manifested due stress in critical situations. These transhumans were usually superior to ordinary humans but in general deeply disturbed as well. They did manage to take over few of the core worlds before they could be dealt with (civil war). After the crisis had ended the reasons for the instability became known and extensive gengineering became a strict taboo (and crime) - though as the transhumans were understood to be a liability - or potential risk elements - they were not put to death or imprisoned as the just confined/exiled to 'reserved systems' and would not be allowed to leave their planets (as technically it was not their fault that they became insane). And result of ruining the core systems and breaking the foundations of already fractured interstellar society made most - if not all - colonies to break away and form their own governments, core worlds in their post war state had no means to respond - cold war of sorts continued until sort of Interstellar UN (name pending) was setup to oversee the space - it was not there to prevent wars but to make sure there would be no 'undue suffering' or disruption of trade due to disagreements between interstellar states/factions (in effect making things like interstellar law, interstellar currency, to certain extent peacekeeping stuff etc. possible - essentially allowing limited conflicts but keeping the scale from getting out of hand, no planet killers or WMDs allowed - somewhat like the Imperium of Traveller but without strappings of imperial power). Now the new and the old interstellar states are ready to explore, expand and struggle for survival in the galaxy. Tech Base assumption lies rather close to safetech TL10 - i think... Biotech - due background - limited but existing, though strictly monitored, all genetic engineering would be mapped and only certified mods would be allowed, even then only in limited numbers or the person could be seen as non-human, imprisoned and forced to settle to 'reservation planet' (yeah, yeah, its deus ex machina to keep BioTech from ruining safetech universe, better ideas for it?). Same goes with cybertech, to certain extent - though minor powers would have few reservations to modify their own agents with cybertech - especially if it is concealable. Weapons... Plasma weapons, what good would scifi setting be without solid plasma blasters? Space travel stuff... Stardrive - Warp drive - essentially derived from the one represented in 2300AD, ie. very limited range (a pair of parsecs) - larger drive either allows carrying larger mass or going faster; requires discharging within 0.1G gravity well, say 4 h per ly traveled; ceases to function within 0.0001G gravity well; going over the drive limit or trying to jettison 'non-discharged' drive causes catastrophic radiation surge and explosion; warping ship can be tracked - even if signal moves at only at c - but warping ship itself is blinded. Standard drives - normal (H2 & H2O) and HT (only H2) fusion torch drives and then 'High Efficiency Plasma Recombustion' or HEPlaR drive from GTS... Costs the same as fusion torch drives, gives 0.1/0.2 Gs with 675/1350 mps (TL9/TL10). Effectively giving slow burning but efficient drive for big ships and fast and inefficient drive for fighters. Odds and ends Laser weapons, UT and SS. UT states IR laser (ie. the 'basic laser') gets (2) same as UV laser - only difference being UV laser getting thrice the range and half the damage. This does not appear to hold true with SS. Any insights? Gravity, the artificial kind... Would make so many things so much easier - not to mention allowing 'near normal' space travel. Since we would like to steer clear of 'contra-grav' does it seem plausible to have artificial internal gravity within the ships and/or gravitic compensators but no contragrav? Alternative would be pod like setup as seen in 2300AD ships (something akin to this). Or a final straw of going to transhumanist route of Bio-Tech and simply make them spacers survive without gravity. Opinions? Radiation... The bane of space opera settings - the best we came up with was stating that artificial gravity/gravitic compensators somehow helped repulsing it. Easiest way would be just to ignore like usually done is space operas but without than the 'artificial gravity blocks radiation' or forcefields (ie. magnetic fields repelling only charged particles - ie. would not work against weapons only against radiation) it seems the only way. Other than resorting to Bio-Tech once again. Ideas? Last edited by Wanderer; 07-31-2011 at 01:20 PM. Reason: and apparently got disconnected while posting as well...