Ideas for a new universe

[gigabytelord]

Hello I've been lurking these forums for several years and figured this may be the best place to pull some useful ideas for a universe that a friend and I are working on, these include ideas for ship designs, and planetary environments and many other things which may be encountered therein. I may if at all possible continue to post here as the story advances picking peoples brains about various scientific and or historical comparatives.

Okay my question is about star ship designs and the technologies used in their construction. The world in which this is base is highly advanced and I've used components from a number of different universes while trying to maintain a certain level of 'hard science' which is quite hard when the universe involved contains multiple galaxy spanning empires, also I've a bit of ADHD so don't be surprised if I end up staring off in the corner yelling at the cat, wait I don't have a cat...

Any way the ship I have in mind is about 12km in length, shaped similar to a modern submarine minus that mast, the bridge is buried deep in the center of the ship for protection, the exterior of the ship is covered with layers of advanced meta materials which allow the ship to not only cloak to a point* but absorb and transfer heat and electrical energy from enemy weapons fire, the main ship to ship weapons that the empire uses are railguns (sorry but I've always had a soft spot for good old fashion slug throwers because regardless of how advanced you think you are a thrown rock stills hurts) although all front line imperial war ships are equipped with medium range FTL fitted anti-ship missiles (ie. 10-20 AU range). Imperial naval combat doctrine states that only in the most dire circumstances are Imperial vessels allowed to close to within 100,00km of the enemy during a battle, all ships have have multiple layers of shielding in case the enemy just so happens to have projectile weapons of their own.

The main power source for imperial ships is Magnetically Contained Quantum Vacuum Technology (yeah yeah I know I said hard science just a few lines ago) so the ship does not have a power shortage, but rather a surplus of power and finding ways to manage this power is difficult to say the least, which is where a particularly valuable naturally super conductive mineral comes into play and ends up starting a war... but that's a different story...

You can see how I've been working on this for a while and I'm going slightly bonkers any helpful advise is welcome and I'm open to constructive criticism, fire away! *runs and hides under the table*

Maybe drinking four moutaindews before writing this wasn't a good idea?

[Stark]

If you have those kind of specifics, and assuming you know what kind of story you want to tell thematically, who cares? Do you just want the cachet of ticking the 'hard scifi' bullet point?

[gigabytelord]

If you have those kind of specifics, and assuming you know what kind of story you want to tell thematically, who cares? Do you just want the cachet of ticking the 'hard scifi' bullet point?

Yes I suppose right now I mainly want to get an idea of what would be the most structurally stable ship design and combat tactics, in the story I'm trying to move away from traditional water in space movement ships have in most sci-fi stories.

[Stark]

If you're shooting missiles at FTL while 20 AU apart, what kind of battle movements do you want? Fleet formations? ECM/observation stuff? Fog of war?

[gigabytelord]

If you're shooting missiles at FTL while 20 AU apart, what kind of battle movements do you want? Fleet formations? ECM/observation stuff? Fog of war?

The missiles themselves are hunter killer type weapons that can search for and auto lock on to enemy craft however the only type of FTL sensors that currently exist in universe is gravimetric but as it's name suggests it works by detecting the gravitational distortion of the other ships gravity drives, this can lead to mistaken identities and therefore friendly fire which means that is some occasions the only way to be sure is 'jump' for lack of a better word to within range of traditional sensor types, and this I would think would also place you within the enemies firing range, the question is what would be the theoretical best way to handle a situation like this, so yes what would the best fleet formation types be? What would the best way to out maneuver the enemy in space where there is no up or down in a world where you can't 'out flank the enemy' how would you deal with that? my brain is running away with all the scenarios....

[FedRebel]

Any way the ship I have in mind is about 12km in length, shaped similar to a modern submarine minus that mast, the bridge is buried deep in the center of the ship for protection, the exterior of the ship is covered with layers of advanced meta materials which allow the ship to not only cloak to a point* but absorb and transfer heat and electrical energy from enemy weapons fire, the main ship to ship weapons that the empire uses are railguns (sorry but I've always had a soft spot for good old fashion slug throwers because regardless of how advanced you think you are a thrown rock stills hurts) although all front line imperial war ships are equipped with medium range FTL fitted anti-ship missiles (ie. 10-20 AU range). Imperial naval combat doctrine states that only in the most dire circumstances are Imperial vessels allowed to close to within 100,00km of the enemy during a battle, all ships have have multiple layers of shielding in case the enemy just so happens to have projectile weapons of their own.

Interesting, how about ECM equipment doing the "cloaking" job? uber-alloys aren't that "hard" so an evolution of say aircraft (modern heavy bomber) EM equipment to the point where the ship can generate enough electromagnetic interference that it can literally refract light (as a defense against thoroughbred lasers) and generate enough radiation that fighters are obsolete (armor and shielding are life, and starfighters lack the mass.)

As far as vessel design it can be anything you want, but dagger and sphere shapes are more logical for warships in space ("cigars" have to broadside, the bow would have too little punch)

additional weapons to compliment your rail guns could be Casaba-Howitzers
http://www.projectrho.com/rocket/spaceg ... apedcharge

Use antimatter and they can be as nasty as you want/need.

The main power source for imperial ships is Magnetically Contained Quantum Vacuum Technology (yeah yeah I know I said hard science just a few lines ago) so the ship does not have a power shortage, but rather a surplus of power and finding ways to manage this power is difficult to say the least, which is where a particularly valuable naturally super conductive mineral comes into play and ends up starting a war... but that's a different story...

I'd go with antimatter as it's "hard"-er and from a story standpoint the pain in the ass effort to manufacture antimatter can play into war strategies.

In terms of sub-light propulsion every race should have their "own", be it VASMIR, ion drive, Orion drive, variations there of, or other NASA napkin scribblings.

Personally Orion pulse drives would be limited to more aggressive species as extensive tinkering with nuclear weapons is requisite to happen upon the 'method', and for the "advancement" from fission charges to thermonuclear to finally antimatter charges to be on a "stupidity" scale

1: The race must be "stupid" enough to think that nuclear initiations make a good propulsion system

2: The Race must be "stupid" enough to think that fusion charges would be even better.

3: The race must be unbelievably "stupid" to the extent that they want to use antimatter annihilation as a viable method of propulsion. (getting up to ~0.8c is awesome, no "NASA-waffe" comes close)

Why is it all "stupid"? Your ships are propelled by literal "bombs" (for lack of a better term.)

[gigabytelord]

Interesting, how about ECM equipment doing the "cloaking" job? uber-alloys aren't that "hard" so an evolution of say aircraft (modern heavy bomber) EM equipment to the point where the ship can generate enough electromagnetic interference that it can literally refract light (as a defense against thoroughbred lasers) and generate enough radiation that fighters are obsolete (armor and shielding are life, and starfighters lack the mass.)

Thank you, I didn't think of that *writes idea in notebook*

As far as vessel design it can be anything you want, but dagger and sphere shapes are more logical for warships in space ("cigars" have to broadside, the bow would have too little punch)

Thanks again, I figured a much, I'm thinking about going with multiple designs which will be used in differing roles, ie smaller ships will be more dagger or perhaps rectangular shaped while larger ships will be of a 'cigar' or spherical shape, given the ranges involved a 12km long battleship needing a few extra seconds to line up for a broadside while destroyer escorts, cruisers, and fighter drones keep the enemy fleet pinned doesn't sound like to much of an issue, however if you see an issue with that feel free to point it out.

additional weapons to compliment your rail guns could be Casaba-Howitzers
http://www.projectrho.com/rocket/spaceg ... apedcharge
Use antimatter and they can be as nasty as you want/need.
I'd go with antimatter as it's "hard"-er and from a story standpoint the pain in the ass effort to manufacture antimatter can play into war strategies.
In terms of sub-light propulsion every race should have their "own", be it VASMIR, ion drive, Orion drive, variations there of, or other NASA napkin scribblings.
Personally Orion pulse drives would be limited to more aggressive species as extensive tinkering with nuclear weapons is requisite to happen upon the 'method', and for the "advancement" from fission charges to thermonuclear to finally antimatter charges to be on a "stupidity" scale
1: The race must be "stupid" enough to think that nuclear initiations make a good propulsion system
2: The Race must be "stupid" enough to think that fusion charges would be even better.
3: The race must be unbelievably "stupid" to the extent that they want to use antimatter annihilation as a viable method of propulsion. (getting up to ~0.8c is awesome, no "NASA-waffe" comes close)
Why is it all "stupid"? Your ships are propelled by literal "bombs" (for lack of a better term.)

I'll see if I can answer this all in one go,

As far as the weapons and energy sources go, I'm thinking of a situation where the empire in question has the ability to generate has much power has they need, the issue is that the power source it's self is inherently unstable, they've managed to work out the kinks for the tech to the point where it can be used in weapons as small as hand held railrifles which use the same magnetic field which fires the ammo to also maintain the energy source, in other words the power source generates the magnetic field which contains it's self while generating enough excess energy to also operate the weapon... yeah I'm still trying to figure it out my self I might just go back to high density batteries ...

HOWEVER (back on track heh) the larger the volume of quantum vacuum they create> the larger the amount of energy it creates> the harder it is to control this energy> at which point they have to throttle the energy output but only to the point to where they can easily release it if they so desire which makes superconductive materials extremely valuable, even to the point of going to war over them, and to reinforce the the importance of said material they have to use massive amounts of it when building their ships, this means it is used in the production of everything from railguns (which allows them to push rather large projectiles to 99.9%c) to the power control banks in the gravity core which allows them to go FTL, in other words it's basically an in universe representation of oil

OKAY now on to sublight propulsion, until I read this I hadn't even thought about it now I have something else to figure out thank you for reminding me and thanks for the link.

And as always feel free to destroy my logic with constructive insight.

[Simon_Jester]

Thanks again, I figured a much, I'm thinking about going with multiple designs which will be used in differing roles, ie smaller ships will be more dagger or perhaps rectangular shaped while larger ships will be of a 'cigar' or spherical shape, given the ranges involved a 12km long battleship needing a few extra seconds to line up for a broadside while destroyer escorts, cruisers, and fighter drones keep the enemy fleet pinned doesn't sound like to much of an issue, however if you see an issue with that feel free to point it out.

Before you get too excited, calculate the acceleration it would take to make a 12km battleship pivot to bring its flank to bear in "a few seconds." You won't get that out of hardish-SF engines.

To do it in, say, ten seconds, you need five seconds of thrust to start the spin, five seconds to stop it, which means (assuming the ship pivots around its geometric center) the ends of the ship are passing through a forty-five degree arc in five seconds... about 0.78 radians. Angular acceleration needs to be 0.0624 radians per second squared, which at the end of a six thousand meter moment arm means a linear acceleration of 374 meters per second squared, or about 38 gravities.

Can anyone spell "strawberry jam?"

Now, if we try the same stunt but give the ship a full minute to rotate ninety degrees, acceleration drops dramatically... to 1.73 milliradians per second squared, which is still greater than one gravity of lateral acceleration at the ends of the ship. Better have everything clamped down good and tight while turning the ship. And to make this work you need engines mounted on the bow and stern, with sufficient thrust to accelerate the ship laterally at one gravity or higher... and hull frames that can handle that kind of thrust.

As far as the weapons and energy sources go, I'm thinking of a situation where the empire in question has the ability to generate has much power has they need, the issue is that the power source it's self is inherently unstable, they've managed to work out the kinks for the tech to the point where it can be used in weapons as small as hand held railrifles which use the same magnetic field which fires the ammo to also maintain the energy source, in other words the power source generates the magnetic field which contains it's self while generating enough excess energy to also operate the weapon... yeah I'm still trying to figure it out my self I might just go back to high density batteries ...

Try to contain the technobabble in as tight a space as possible. Do remember that any high density energy system doubles as an explosive when things go wrong; people may not be entirely happy with the idea that a malfunctioning pistol could blow up in their hand with, say, the force of a four-inch artillery shell.

[lordofchange13]

In what way do your vessels achieve FTL? If they work on some sort of Gravity manipulation, then you could quite easly use a similar technology to give yourself "inertial dampers" so that turning your ship in a few seconds doesn't jellyfie the crew.

[lordofchange13]

For your sidearms: Unless your basic soldier is a space marine you will not need a very dense battery to kill your enemy. Atomic Rockets has a nice article for handheld weaponry.

[gigabytelord]

For your sidearms: Unless your basic soldier is a space marine you will not need a very dense battery to kill your enemy. Atomic Rockets has a nice article for handheld weaponry.

Well I was trying to stay away from laser/raygun/disruptor/pewpew type handheld energy weapon, I'm one of those sad people who doesn't really like directed energy weapons in the sci-fi setting, of course in a universe as big as this one I have to look at the fact that not every civilization will go down the same tech path that we humans have, and there may be people out there (ie one of the empires enemies) who have put the time and effort into developing advanced laser weaponry.

As far as the high density batteries goes it's either them or another source of power generation, because in my mind the way the empire's handheld railguns work is one of two possible variants (I might end up using both because of the implied size of said empire) (1.) Is a vacuum core which generates enough power to operate both it's own magnetic containment field and allow the weapon to function, the weapons I was thinking of being a railgun of course, however unlike most designs I was thinking why over complicate it (yeah.. vacuum core that's not complicated at all...) just give the weapon a simple breech, inside is magnetic field, open the breech take any chunk of ferromagnetic material you can find (of course the infantry man would be issued standardized pellets or rods of, lets say tungsten) throw it in, the weapon has a small but powerful laser which then slices off chunks of this pellet, and these pellets will be accelerated down the barrel at sufficiently high speeds to kill.
Both the speed at which the projectile can be fired and the size of the projectile can be easily adjusted to the situation at hand (lets say slow the speed but increase the size for close range house to house fighting or decrease the size and increase the speed for medium to long range fighting. (2.) replace the vacuum core with a battery and add a plug for charging, which will increase down time and decrease productivity (or rather destructivity? is that even a word? I really should start sleeping more at night...)

That's whats running around screaming in my mind anyways...

In what way do your vessels achieve FTL? If they work on some sort of Gravity manipulation, then you could quite easly use a similar technology to give yourself "inertial dampers" so that turning your ship in a few seconds doesn't jellyfie the crew.

Well at first I was thinking actual fuel propellant, (ie carry lots of fuel encase there's gravimetric distortion device up in the system which destabilizes gravity drives and prevents them from operating correctly) but then I realized how stupid that would be, then I looked at the link I was given several post back (thanks fedrebel) and thought ooOOooOOoo nuclear drives... then it dawned on me why fedrebel said it was a stupid idea to begin with... so now here I am doing this did I mention I've already got a document with over 100,000 words and several other scribbling docs as well full of back story, history, conflicts and a number of different races, I'm just running into what I guess could be called writers block, it doesn't help that I'm working most of the time and doing this at the same time. Okay sorry for the rant.

[lordofchange13]

As far as the high density batteries goes it's either them or another source of power generation, because in my mind the way the empire's handheld railguns work is one of two possible variants (I might end up using both because of the implied size of said empire) (1.) Is a vacuum core which generates enough power to operate both it's own magnetic containment field and allow the weapon to function, the weapons I was thinking of being a railgun of course, however unlike most designs I was thinking why over complicate it (yeah.. vacuum core that's not complicated at all...) just give the weapon a simple breech, inside is magnetic field, open the breech take any chunk of ferromagnetic material you can find (of course the infantry man would be issued standardized pellets or rods of, lets say tungsten) throw it in, the weapon has a small but powerful laser which then slices off chunks of this pellet, and these pellets will be accelerated down the barrel at sufficiently high speeds to kill.
Both the speed at which the projectile can be fired and the size of the projectile can be easily adjusted to the situation at hand (lets say slow the speed but increase the size for close range house to house fighting or decrease the size and increase the speed for medium to long range fighting. (2.) replace the vacuum core with a battery and add a plug for charging, which will increase down time and decrease productivity (or rather destructivity? is that even a word? I really should start sleeping more at night...)

Realistic future batteries can give you megawatts per kilogram of storage mass(Numbers varies), so...a magic juice core thingy is unnecessary(and from what i understand of your universe, the core device costs a lot money in that superconductors are needed which can't be fabricated artificially). Are these soldiers in unobtainum Armour or power suits? if not then then high power weapons are a wast for most battles. I can understand your reluctance for using energy weapons, But in most settings the bonuses of lasers long range and resistance to arcing will most often outweigh there penetration ability.

[lordofchange13]

've already got a document with over 100,000 words and several other scribbling docs as well full of back story, history, conflicts and a number of different races, I'm just running into what I guess could be called writers block, it doesn't help that I'm working most of the time and doing this at the same time. Okay sorry for the rant.

Good job man! I only got 2 Docs for my universe with together about 19,000 words. But i hate typing most of my stuff are in 3 notebooks.

[Shroom Man 777]

You guise could write a story of a sympathetic character as he wanders through this strange universe full of wonders and encounters all sorts of adventures. The process of his adventuring and his encountering these new things might also help you conjure up new things in the dynamic of your vast fiction, and the experience of writing characters and their interplay with your created universe might also help you breathe life into the setting - not just in factions, in technologies and weapons, in histories and events, but also in cultures and in people and how the setting you have created has affected them and their lives.

[lordofchange13]

Culture and society is what my universe is all about! You just start out discerning how tech works the rest you spend philosophising how a civilization would develop how people would lice,etc. Like your new avatar Shroom.
If you got suggestions on how to make bitchin character dynamics, i am made of ears.

[Shroom Man 777]

Well we can't start from a vacuum and segue about cultures from a discussion of Menergizer Batteries in Spess with steroidified pink cyborg rabbits running through brick walls and punching people in the ovaries with more menergy and electrolytes and turbolytes and powerlytes than you can shake a quadricorder at.

So tell me more about your own 'verse's cultures and such. That'd be good to hear, and would be just as worthwhile as technical discussionatings. And with it we can start this culturoid discussion.

Character dynamics of not just individual persons, but of societies and such in these worldbuilding things, well, that is (was?) what I'm struggling to figure out in my own 'verse because I personally felt that for all the descriptions of pew-pews I could make up for my own spesships, it still didn't feel alive and was rather quite dead. Though my own quantifications and computation abilities are nowhere near like that of others much more well versed in numerals than I, but even if it were and I would be able to explain how the quantum nanobucky ball exotubules of my technological badass US MAREEN HUT HUT HUT tacticool power armors function, I don't think I would've found that satisfying.

So like in my attempt at worldbuilding with a friend, we ended up putting as much emphasis in inane non-technological things as in the techno-weapony-pew-pew aspects. In fact, more so perhaps. We had irreverent commercials for pornographic products. Reviews for deranged future movies made by terrible avant grade lunatic directors huffing up alien space drugs and/or indulging in dumb 1980s action movie equivalents in space. Paul Verhoven's works, Robocop and Starship Troopers, with the parodic deranged insane media be it adverts or dumb talk shows or fake news pieces saturating the movies themselves to help immerse the audience in the weird ass worlds he's depicting, became a major source of inspiration for us. Along with Grand Theft Auto: Vice City. I was young then, and I could not help but reference the hilarious dumb shit we saw around us. We even had ridiculous articles on space food, drugs, and how pretentious Grey aliens thought every other species were culturally morally bankrupt barely sentient apelings. Shitty space pop music. The Vatican turning into a fastfood burger franchise.

Part of our shtick was in emulating the inaneries and insanities and stupidities of real life here and now which makes our lives so interesting and dumb, but in future, and in SPAAAACE!

[gigabytelord]

Holy crap I wasn't expecting so many replies, okay I'll try my best to get everyone an answer.

Before you get too excited, calculate the acceleration it would take to make a 12km battleship pivot to bring its flank to bear in "a few seconds." You won't get that out of hardish-SF engines.
To do it in, say, ten seconds, you need five seconds of thrust to start the spin, five seconds to stop it, which means (assuming the ship pivots around its geometric center) the ends of the ship are passing through a forty-five degree arc in five seconds... about 0.78 radians. Angular acceleration needs to be 0.0624 radians per second squared, which at the end of a six thousand meter moment arm means a linear acceleration of 374 meters per second squared, or about 38 gravities.
Can anyone spell "strawberry jam?"
Now, if we try the same stunt but give the ship a full minute to rotate ninety degrees, acceleration drops dramatically... to 1.73 milliradians per second squared, which is still greater than one gravity of lateral acceleration at the ends of the ship. Better have everything clamped down good and tight while turning the ship. And to make this work you need engines mounted on the bow and stern, with sufficient thrust to accelerate the ship laterally at one gravity or higher... and hull frames that can handle that kind of thrust.

Okay we're moving that turning time up to several minutes at least, however to answer this question:

In what way do your vessels achieve FTL? If they work on some sort of Gravity manipulation, then you could quite easly use a similar technology to give yourself "inertial dampers" so that turning your ship in a few seconds doesn't jellyfie the crew.

You hit it right on the head, that's exactly what I intend to do, but with limits, and I intend to put the same limits on everything else (as in NBSG, we're alive, but we're still fucked) I hate it when writers wank out in universe tech so they can deus ex their way through impossible situations, I apologize if that makes me seem elitist when it comes to sci-fi.

(1) Realistic future batteries can give you megawatts per kilogram of storage mass(Numbers varies), so...a magic juice core thingy is unnecessary(and from what i understand of your universe, the core device costs a lot money in that superconductors are needed which can't be fabricated artificially).

(2) Are these soldiers in unobtainum Armour or power suits?

(3) if not then high power weapons are a wast for most battles. I can understand your reluctance for using energy weapons, But in most settings the bonuses of lasers long range and resistance to arcing will most often outweigh there penetration ability.

(1) Okay food for thought.

(2) No, in fact I'm trying to stay as far away from the "uber super wtf elite solders" as possible. Will there be highly advanced technologies? Yes, Will there be elite solders, black operations, covert operatives and agencies that employ cyberneticaly enhanced warriors? Yes, but they will be used as they would used in real world operations, if the modern world had access to these technologies. As a person who grew up in a family, half of which has served or is currently serving in the military, the idea of genetically/cyberneticaly/wtfneticaly enhanced super solders coming in at the end of battle and taking all glory is repulsive and just damned unrealistic, why would you create a force like that and then use it as the front line force? if you have those kind of resources then do the right thing and equip/enhance all of your forces since it would obviously be saving lives and ending wars much quicker or else you risk alienating the rest of your fighting forces and we all know that an unhappy military can result in very bad things...

(3) More food for thought, perhaps a mixture of railgun and laser technologies on the battle field? giving snipers laser rifles because they will most benefit from the pinpoint accuracy and considerably longer range, not to mention no recoil and depending on the laser frequency no damned flash to give away their location.
At medium or short range this is less important.

Good job man! I only got 2 Docs for my universe with together about 19,000 words. But i hate typing most of my stuff are in 3 notebooks.

Six months and counting for the actual writing and several years for the ideas, also I'm not alone as this has been a cooperative process with several friends.

You guise could write a story of a sympathetic character as he wanders through this strange universe full of wonders and encounters all sorts of adventures. The process of his adventuring and his encountering these new things might also help you conjure up new things in the dynamic of your vast fiction, and the experience of writing characters and their interplay with your created universe might also help you breathe life into the setting - not just in factions, in technologies and weapons, in histories and events, but also in cultures and in people and how the setting you have created has affected them and their lives.

And

Culture and society is what my universe is all about! You just start out discerning how tech works the rest you spend philosophising how a civilization would develop how people would lice,etc. Like your new avatar Shroom.
If you got suggestions on how to make bitchin character dynamics, i am made of ears.

After six months of writing I've only recently started working on interpersonal relationships, cultural differences, languages, religions and a host of other in universe issues and conflicts.

Well we can't start from a vacuum and segue about cultures from a discussion of Menergizer Batteries in Spess with steroidified pink cyborg rabbits running through brick walls and punching people in the ovaries with more menergy and electrolytes and turbolytes and powerlytes than you can shake a quadricorder at.

So tell me more about your own 'verse's cultures and such. That'd be good to hear, and would be just as worthwhile as technical discussionatings. And with it we can start this culturoid discussion.

Character dynamics of not just individual persons, but of societies and such in these worldbuilding things, well, that is (was?) what I'm struggling to figure out in my own 'verse because I personally felt that for all the descriptions of pew-pews I could make up for my own spesships, it still didn't feel alive and was rather quite dead. Though my own quantifications and computation abilities are nowhere near like that of others much more well versed in numerals than I, but even if it were and I would be able to explain how the quantum nanobucky ball exotubules of my technological badass US MAREEN HUT HUT HUT tacticool power armors function, I don't think I would've found that satisfying.

So like in my attempt at worldbuilding with a friend, we ended up putting as much emphasis in inane non-technological things as in the techno-weapony-pew-pew aspects. In fact, more so perhaps. We had irreverent commercials for pornographic products. Reviews for deranged future movies made by terrible avant grade lunatic directors huffing up alien space drugs and/or indulging in dumb 1980s action movie equivalents in space. Paul Verhoven's works, Robocop and Starship Troopers, with the parodic deranged insane media be it adverts or dumb talk shows or fake news pieces saturating the movies themselves to help immerse the audience in the weird ass worlds he's depicting, became a major source of inspiration for us. Along with Grand Theft Auto: Vice City. I was young then, and I could not help but reference the hilarious dumb shit we saw around us. We even had ridiculous articles on space food, drugs, and how pretentious Grey aliens thought every other species were culturally morally bankrupt barely sentient apelings. Shitty space pop music. The Vatican turning into a fastfood burger franchise.

Part of our shtick was in emulating the inaneries and insanities and stupidities of real life here and now which makes our lives so interesting and dumb, but in future, and in SPAAAACE!

Well I'm still in the construction phase as far as most cultural elements are concerned but as it expands I'll be sure to contact you and maybe we can share or devolope new ideas

If I missed anybody I apologize, there were more replies than I expected.

[Shroom Man 777]

I don't want to tell you "how to do" your culture and stuff and really I'm no one to talk about stuff. This is your thing, this is your baby and it's all yours. It's a lovechild of creation borne from you and yours, your effort, your mind and soul, your heart and hope. What I'm saying is just advice. Like, you know, after staring at the computer too long and having trouble getting ideas to write, sometimes walking out of the house and stretching the legs or something before sitting back on the computer and continuing on, can refreshen your perspective. Similarly, taking a break from contemplating batteries and menergies and gigajoules and just considering entirely different things - like peoples, cultures, social idiosyncracies and stupid things dumb space people do that would seem silly to us, what their entertainment is like, what their practices are, what they do for fun - can similarly be a refreshing exercise precisely because it's so very different from the scientific and technological speculations you may have been doing for a long while.

If there's anything I can tell to a fellow person indulging in worldbuilding, it's that. Because I will never be able to computate or scientificate or technologify or analyze in that way.

And I guess you can watch or read sci-fi works and instead of looking at what technology they display, instead you can focus on the other non-technological idiosyncrasies and things shown in their world. Don't look at the flying cars of Blade Runner, but look at the bazaars, the noodle stands, the run down urban decay and the disparity between peoples and the tenuous difference between the real and the artificial. Don't look at the giant oil harvesting spaceship of Alien, but at the conditions these space miners on the Nostromo have to endure, the interplay of half a dozen people stuck in a metal box for years either awake or in refrigeration. Don't mind the cyborg killing machines or arachnid horrors of either Robocop or Starship Troopers, but look at how dysfunctional their fucked up societies are and the mindless consumerist advertisements (I'd buy that for a dollar) or militant fascist propagandas (Would you like to know more?) saturating their media. Think of what they're trying to say with these things they have constructed. What themes, what significations, are in these things beyond merely the technologies featured in them.

Consider the flavorings of these things. Consider what makes these works alive. We're all growing, we're all developing, and the works we make also partly stem from what we see and experience around us. So we have to be open, to perceive as much of these things as possible, to indulge in not just sameness, but in all sorts of differences, because who knows what's out there, how they will affect us, how they will change us and our limits.

[Stark]

The bland tech gubbins can easily flow from culture, politics, or theme. Once you decide on 19th century in space, for instance, the constraints on movement and weaponary and communication can be easily extracted. When wishing to tell a story about the brutality and ultimate futility of the struggle of man against man, you can see how this would also inform elements of combat and transportation. Even something as vague as 'space is mysterious' allows you to know where you are going with regard to communications, knowledge, social attitudes, etc. Once you start following your ideas into new areas rather than attempting to cover all the bases required by intelligent nerds of 2012, you become a creator of something.

If, of course, you're just 'worldbuilding' a 'universe' that is 'hard scifi' to impress yourself with how clever you are, this may not be relevant.

[Shroom Man 777]

Part of figuring out how to worldbuild is to figure out where you stand and how you perceive things, because these will shape what you wish to create, help you decide to know what you wish to create. I'm still unsure of many things. Part of what I've been doing recently is either me going crazy, or me trying to figure out what's what and reflecting on things, trying to broaden my own horizons, and figuring out the volition of fiction, of imagination and of creation - what these things mean, how they touch our lives, and what these things are - before trying to create things on my own again. I guess.

So part of this is just me talking to myself, and part of it is me sharing what I'm thinking of to other folks to see if my talks to myself are still within sound parameters, a reference point to make sure I haven't gone down the rabbit's hole.

You guys (you know who you are) have been great help. Thank you. And I guess this is something we're all trying to figure out ourselves.

[gigabytelord]

I don't want to tell you "how to do" your culture and stuff and really I'm no one to talk about stuff. This is your thing, this is your baby and it's all yours. It's a lovechild of creation borne from you and yours, your effort, your mind and soul, your heart and hope. What I'm saying is just advice. Like, you know, after staring at the computer too long and having trouble getting ideas to write, sometimes walking out of the house and stretching the legs or something before sitting back on the computer and continuing on, can refreshen your perspective.

I know and I appreciate any help or suggestions i get, but this is in no way mine and mine alone, like I said previously I wouldn't have even got'n this far without the help of others, particularly with the cultural aspects, it's been a long ride and I'm still enjoying it, some times I just need to talk to other similarly minded people about things that just aren't making sense to me for what ever reason.

The bland tech gubbins can easily flow from culture, politics, or theme. Once you decide on 19th century in space, for instance, the constraints on movement and weaponary and communication can be easily extracted. When wishing to tell a story about the brutality and ultimate futility of the struggle of man against man, you can see how this would also inform elements of combat and transportation. Even something as vague as 'space is mysterious' allows you to know where you are going with regard to communications, knowledge, social attitudes, etc. Once you start following your ideas into new areas rather than attempting to cover all the bases required by intelligent nerds of 2012, you become a creator of something.

Actually I'm going for more of 20th century style setting, not so much in the combat but politically and regionally, there's a few kinks I need to work out, but I'm trying my hardest, of course some times my frustrations just lead me to do this >

If, of course, you're just 'worldbuilding' a 'universe' that is 'hard scifi' to impress yourself with how clever you are, this may not be relevant.

Whats the point of spending the time I've spent on this if I have no intention of sharing it with people who will hopefully enjoy reading it as much as I did (most of the time) writing it, I realize your probably just being sarcastic and/or joking but I figured I best get that out of the way now.

Part of figuring out how to worldbuild is to figure out where you stand and how you perceive things, because these will shape what you wish to create, help you decide to know what you wish to create. I'm still unsure of many things. Part of what I've been doing recently is either me going crazy, or me trying to figure out what's what and reflecting on things, trying to broaden my own horizons, and figuring out the volition of fiction, of imagination and of creation - what these things mean, how they touch our lives, and what these things are - before trying to create things on my own again. I guess.
So part of this is just me talking to myself, and part of it is me sharing what I'm thinking of to other folks to see if my talks to myself are still within sound parameters, a reference point to make sure I haven't gone down the rabbit's hole.
You guys (you know who you are) have been great help. Thank you. And I guess this is something we're all trying to figure out ourselves.

My perception of a universe usually starts on the outside and works it's way in, I've never been able to watch or read any sci-fi or any fictional story for that matter and just be content with what I read/see I always have this uncontrollable need to continue to explore each new universe until I know the big picture, and once I know that, I start focusing on the 'little' picture and continue working my down, and this comes out in my writing, the problem is, I need to learn how to control this better so I can start to focus on the small aspects earlier so I can build around them and actually create a beautiful story, and not just a epic/cool universe that no one will ever learn about because, well whats the point?

[Stark]

I think its helpful to talk about what the frustrations or roadblocks you've had around your setting are. In my experience if you keep in mind the events, themes, vignettes or people you want to see in the stories you want to tell, you can start connecting things together until the answers you need emerge by themselves.

So with the idea of 20th century in space, what are the frustrations you're having around how you want to explore that?

[Purple]

Well, to get back to way back and your missiles. I think you neglected point defense. Unless your missiles are faster than light, and even if they are, over ranges of several AU you are still looking at minutes of flight time. Minutes the enemy would spend best just chucking flak in front of your shells. It does not even have to hit it right away, just make what is essentially a mine field. A field of debris would probably be the best possible shield in such a setting unless your missiles are really smart or really well armored.

[gigabytelord]

I think its helpful to talk about what the frustrations or roadblocks you've had around your setting are. In my experience if you keep in mind the events, themes, vignettes or people you want to see in the stories you want to tell, you can start connecting things together until the answers you need emerge by themselves.

So with the idea of 20th century in space, what are the frustrations you're having around how you want to explore that?

Right now it's two key words "social interaction", without going into needless descriptions or drawn out stories, everything I know about the modern world I've taught my self, religious home schooling tends to leave out most everything important unless it's conforms to a particular point of view, but that's neither here nor there and not important right now.

I'm having problems with simple interactions, I know what I want to happen, I know how I want it to happen, but I'm having trouble pulling the pieces together, oh and may I add, before I started working on this story I had dabbled in writing several times but nothing ever came of it, partly because, to be blunt, I didn't know what the hell I was talking about. after several failed attempts and lots of stupid/nonsensical technobable I decided it might be best if I "learn my self some facts" (I'm from Texas by the way) and at least try to sound like I know what I'm talking about.

Any ways, (sorry, some times I can a bit ADHD) at one point there's an interaction between two men, this is just before a briefing on an invasion that is about to take place, but in this particular scene/line of dialog, the two men are talking privately, I'll see if I can setup the scenario for you.

A large invasion force, without going into details, is about to jump to within a short distance (in space "a short distance" is relative) of a heavily fortified world and, well, invade.
They know what they have to do as officers, but this does not hide the fact that both men have long time friends and close family both in the ships above, and in the army corps that are about to be landing on the surface on this world, they understand why this world is important as well.
First of all the planet is extremely important in this setting meaning the usage of ship to ship weapons or any other weapon for that matter that would able to bring down the planets protective theater shield would also damage the planet, the planet's landmasses consist on large groups of islands meaning any surface campaign to knock out the shield and therefore take the world is going to be long bloody affair, which creates a setting very similar to WWII in the pacific, hell to even put boots on the ground their going to have to use unorthodox methods to get through the damn shield.

How do I convey, to you the reader, the fear, the sadness, the pre-battle euphoria or anxiety that these two men are feeling right now, and how do I, in story, maintain their professionalism to the rest of the crew, seeing as they are both leaders of men.
This is just one example by the way, there are others where the interactions are much more personal and in one case is nothing more than a battle hardened general being reduced to a shy 16 year
old by his daughter because he almost stood up his first date in twenty damn years, never mind the irony that she is going down the same road he did and may be in the same place twenty years from now.

Sorry if that was to descriptive.

Well, to get back to way back and your missiles. I think you neglected point defense. Unless your missiles are faster than light, and even if they are, over ranges of several AU you are still looking at minutes of flight time. Minutes the enemy would spend best just chucking flak in front of your shells. It does not even have to hit it right away, just make what is essentially a mine field. A field of debris would probably be the best possible shield in such a setting unless your missiles are really smart or really well armored.

More food for thought, I think I was looking at them being used in manner very similar to modern anti ship missiles, fired from a long way off, in an effort to prevent detection, travels at very high speeds (ie FTL, but just barely) also in an effort to prevent detection, however, if as you've said the enemy is able to see the incoming weapons and put up a defensive barrier, ala NBSG and their flak fields which would make for some great eye candy, but now rather useless pieces wreckage... yeah might have to think that one through some more... however, seeing as if at least one of the missiles does get through, the targeted ship is toast as the warhead which the missile carries is powerful enough to destroy the ship, depending on it's size, out right.
I'm going back to the drawing board on this one, maybe make a couple of tweaks.

And as always I'm all ears for any more tips or suggestions.

[Purple]

On the same topic, think counter missiles. And counter counter missiles. And ECM and counter ECM. And the enemy ship firing defensive missiles that are actually small nukes pumping bomb pumped X-ray lasers to shoot down enemy projectiles. Modern AshM's can hide becouse they use all sorts of clever tricks like skimming the surface of the water all the while going really, really fast to hide. In space, that won't be happening.

This said, if your primary long range weapons are missiles like that. And if your primary combat usually always happens at long ranges I could actually see an interesting patten emerging. Namely, battles being fought over long ranges until one side exhausts its munitions and with relatively few actual losses. Battles ending in a withdrawal more often than annihilation. I don't think that is what you want but it is an interesting thought.

And than you get to the inevitable. What happens when some admiral pulls a Nelson and decides he ougth to do the sensible thing and pull in as close as possible to the enemy so that point defenses are rendered moot? You know, get into mele range so to speak. I imagine who ever comes up with that one first would lead a revolution into warfare and kill all the chivalry of war. Even thou such battles would come at a much higher cost of men they would lead to the annihilation of the enemy.

...
I let my imagination run wild again.